J·NETTE
by Spring-Heel-Jacq
Summary: Basically a rewrite of SIM·N but with the two leads reversed and some other changes
1. Introduction

So I decided to rewrite my WALL•E parody with Jeanette as the titular robot and Simon as the love interest. I felt this way for three reasons:  
>First reason is it seemed really off for the roles I gave the two bespectacled chipmunks in SIM•N.<br>Second, Jeanette is shy and clumsy like WALL•E.  
>And third of all is both EVE and Simon goes through character development. Allow me to explain: Back in <span>The Alvin Show<span>, Simon was an intelligent yet flat out character that showed no emotions whatsoever, following Alvin regardless what the impulsive chipmunk did to still intelligent but possessing a very dry sense of humor as well as a keen wit rounded character in Alvin and the Chipmunks as well as in the movies, much like the character development for EVE. In WALL•E, the character EVE learns to embrace her "defects" by the end of the film while she had sentience at the beginning, she was forced to keep it hidden because of her directive. Her voice also evolves into something more feminine and emotional when it was originally robotic and distant.

Don't worry, I will not be deleting SIM•N, I just want to see if this will fair well enough for me to keep. If so, there will be a few differences in both stories, the first change quite obvious if you look at the third disclaimer, or if you bypassed it, than toward the middle if not bottom of the chapter.  
>Hmm, maybe I should make a game out of this and see how many of you spot the differences between this and SIM•N?<p>

As usual, read and review!

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes_ are a fictional group of anthropomorphic chipmunk singers as the female counterparts of _The Chipmunks_ first appearing on the 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series which the American production company **_Bagdasarian Productions_** holds the right to the characters.

_Luxor _is a fictional character in the animated television series, Tutenstein, produced by **_Porchlight Entertainment_** for **_Discovery Kids_** based on the comic by **_Jay Stephens_** published in **_Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse_**.

* * *

><p>Earth, a world long forgotten, a once terrestrial beacon of life now scarred by its former inhabitants and their artificial leavings, now an impurity floating around in space, a ball of garbage so to speak. Such an ironically laughable thought that it's the only known habitable planet in the known universe, if anyone could've seen it now….<p>

However, no one can or ever will again, now that it is by definition: devoid of life. An entire planet with absolute zero population, the former twelve billion inhabitants left their mark, or marks seen from space by new landscapes made entirely of garbage, if the atmosphere had any visibility that is. Even the air is subsequently thick from pollution and the landmasses are almost unrecognizable. Entire continents covered, reshaped, and transformed into a combination of tundra and desert like wastelands solely by plastic, paper, and metal waste, every city now giant junkyards buried by mountains or towers of trash if seen from afar.

Here, in the Buy N' Large Cleanup Sector NA-001, formerly known as New York City, it is barely what it used to be like by the people who lived here. The once mighty iconic buildings of downtown Manhattan now dwarfed or were buried by the even taller copious numbers of towers made entirely of trash cubes, thousands of feet high and stretching on for miles in all directions. The once water filled bays of the Hudson now dried up polluted valleys by the receded Atlantic. Old buildings and bridges mostly rusted and eroded away by the etchings of time, nature, and man's impact. Garbage and the howling volatile winds the only predominant feature present in the once recognizable metropolis but it's not the only thing in this hellhole.

A faint but clear chirping of music sounded, like a whisper in the winds of the dead city. In the distance, something moves amongst the heaps of trash, traversing the streets, a single living being.

Maybe it isn't so devoid of life...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A lone anthropomorphic female chipmunk, or chipette, walked around the avenues of trash towers, strolling across the desolate littered streets carrying out her job, known as "directive." The sound of music emitted from the chipette's playable yet eroded and abused with slight static ancient cassette player gave the only sign of life in this place.

She stops near a small, ancient mobile compactor nearby, one of many around the sector, wielding a shovel in her gloved hands, begins scooping a pile after pile of the land's indefinite filth into the device, and activated it. The sound of its obsolete and worn hydraulics grinding does not silence the sound of upbeat music as it compresses the garbage into a cube echoes through the streets. The compactor opens and spits out a one by one meter cube of junk, weighing roughly fifty kilos. The chipette picks it up with practiced ease and carries it behind her back. Another life form, a medium sized, blue shorthaired feline that had relatively large pointed ears on its broad and moderately wedged shape head follows right behind her. The feline's legs slender in proportion to the body with fine bone structure, small ovals for paws and its long tail occasionally rubbed against the side of its lithe body. After some considerable climbing and carrying up a height of trash, the chipette finally stacks the cube along with others on the top of the trash tower.

The chipette pauses for a moment, leaning against the cubes trying to catch her breath from such labor. She wore a very old, ratty, and dirty coverall jumpsuit, its jean texture cloth coated with stains of dirt, dust, grime, sweat, oil, grease, and god-knew-what other impurities covered her and a royal blue turtleneck sweater with its sleeves rolled up under her overalls. Her name, Jeanette, barely readable on the similarly worn red patch explicitly roughly stitched on her left breast side, its letters "BNL" all but faded. She stood four feet nine and looked in her late teens. Her exposed areas of fur had a sun-bleached shade of light brown from the dust and unforgiving sun, her unruly messy chocolate brown hair held in a bun by a ribbon, the ends of it ties in a bow.

She looks back up to the cubes in front of her.

"Huh?" Something caught her attention, a shimmering object from one of the cubes. She grabs it, it doesn't budge, and she tries harder, grunting for more strength, still nothing. Yanking it with her feet on the cubes, pulling with all her might, the iridescent object finally breaks free with a sudden force that Jeanette falls flat on her back. She sits herself up and simply stared at the object she pried free, just a circular aluminum lid.

_Malleable Metal? Lustrous gray? _The chipette tosses the lid twice in the air and catches it in her hands.

_Lightweight? Hmm . . . If I remember correctly from my lessons, this is part of the boron group of chemical elements known as aluminum. But . . . what exactly is this?_ She wondered how something so simple would make her work herself to know what it was, such curiosity she had.

"Luxor!" She whistles for her feline companion to come with her back down the one thousand meter or three hundred, nine thousand feet of trash tower in a spiraling makeshift ramp, slowly making her way smoothly but at unease at the sight of a long way down to the streets below.

* * *

><p>The kind of cat I describe <em>Luxor<em> is based on the **_Abyssinian_**_, _a breed of domesticated cat that has many stories about its origins, often revolving around **_Ethiopia_** though the actual origins are unknown. Despite that, there are many sources that the **_Abyssinian_** breed is a few thousand years old and comes from **_Ancient Egypt_** as the cats resemble those in ancient painting. It is worth to note, however, that unlike in Tutenstein, _Luxor_ will not be speaking in this story.

Like I've stated at the bottom of chapter five in SIM•N, I will be using the term "chipette" to refer a female chipmunk . . .


	2. Home on the Range

Wow, two reviews and twenty-nine hits within twelve hours since I posted this, that's amazing!

As usual, review and I'll get the next chapter up soon!

**TREX841: **Thanks!

**WALL-E and EVE In Love: **Like I've said before under chapter six of SIM·N, saying the EXACT same thing on a review for "SIM·N," "WALLY: The Humanized Novelization! edited" and now_ here_ is getting old . . .

**MissSteph22:** Yes, thank you for reviewing and I dunno if you saw my note to you but have I seen your name before?

**DISCLAIMER**

_**Bagdasarian Productions **_owns the rights to the fictional anthropomorphic chipmunk singing group_ The Chipettes_ that first appeared on the 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series.

_Luxor_ is a fictional character in the animated television series, Tutenstein, produced by _**Porchlight Entertainment**_ for _**Discovery Kids**_ based on the comic by _**Jay Stephens**_ published in _**Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse**_._the  
><em>

_The Nutty Squirrels_ were a scat singing virtual band formed in imitation of _The Chipmunks_ that had a Top 40 hit in late 1959 with the song "Uh-Oh" and actually preceded _The Chipmunks _on television in an animated cartoon but with much less success.

* * *

><p>It's a far enough distance to traverse through the toxic city as Jeanette travels on foot down the streets from the mountains of trash of former Central Park. Old buildings crumbled and towers of garbage cubes proudly stood as far as the eye could see but she remained unfazed, remaining oblivious to Buy N' Large mega corporation logos, similar to the one on her uniform. Holographic screens materialize from literally everywhere. Buy N' Large shopping, Buy N' Large bank, Buy N' Large restaurants, stores, skyscrapers, Buy N' Large everywhere!<p>

She passes Wall Street, old newspapers scattered everywhere, barely legible from the dirt, read: "TOO MUCH TRASH! EARTH COVERED! BUY N' LARGE CEO DECLARES GLOBAL EMERGENCY!"

Jeanette reaches an elevated maglev train station, the train itself derailed and eroded on the abandoned spot so long ago. Jeanette notions for Luxor to follow, as she hops down on the tracks and continues walking, a short cut home, but not a pleasant one.

She keeps looking ahead, for all around her there are dead anthropomorphic beings. Skeletal remains all wearing similar nametags as Jeanette, their bodies scattered and forgotten like the garbage city they were cleaning, and all but decomposed by nature and time. She remembers this place, being born and raise here. She couldn't escape it nor change it for it was all her life and job as well as for her fellow cleanup workers, participating since early childhood in excavating the dystopian city, no matter what. It was all part of a global effort that started a very long time ago by what was left of the governing Buy N' Large to clean the planet for people who left on ships that set sail for the infinite vacuum of space. They left a certain few millions of selected laborers, including Jeanette's ancestors, to do the work of the societies that left them behind while on a cruise in the heavens. For reasons she doesn't know, never returned, she forgotten how long it's been since they left in the year 2105, decades, maybe centuries passed.

The job itself deadly for constant fatal accidents from falling off trash towers to premature burial from collapsing tower landslides. Extremely powerful sandstorms wrecked the most havoc in any area of the sector along with the cause of destroying untold years worth of labor. Disease a commonplace as products of harmful pollution and mass starvation, medicine became scarce to crude improvising to eventually nonexistent, allowing pandemic to spread, people dying off by the hundreds every day. All these natural forces lead to violent civil unrest from the workers turning on each other, fighting for survival. Over time, the workers died off by the thousands to the millions, and when Jeanette was able to use a shovel for the first time, there were very few left, less than a thousand in the sector of the dwindling tens of thousands globally. Every year, they succumbed to the uninhabitable environment or killed each other off one by one. Only Jeanette herself barely survived and she was just a child. There were probably a few more like her scattered across the globe. Like Sector NA-001, they were all dead and forgotten, virtually at the edge of extinction.

There is uneasiness in her as she kept walking, avoiding looking at her fallen workers but snaps back into reality by a sharp pain.

"Aah!" she shouts and holds her bleeding foot in reflex. Collecting herself, Jeanette glimpses under her work boots, they're completely worn to her feet! She realizes as she looked at the piece of metal shards along the corroded tracks she stepped on and pierced her foot, and appears to be more along the way. Wanting to get home in time, she had to find replacements or be lost in this city at night in the toxic air.

She makes her way carefully around the mass grave of fellow workers. There must be a hundred bodies unmoved from the spot they dropped dead, some completely buried in trash and sand, and few with wearable clothes, let alone boots. Finally, she spots a usable pair, still fit to the skeleton of its deceased owner. A black, round framed glasses identified by the initials "D. E." engraved on the side of the part attached to the side of the rim, connecting the hinged stem to the frame on the skull of the deceased squirrel. Jeanette instantly recognized the carcass as one of the squirrel brothers. Or were they close friends? Jeanette can't remember, she only remembered them having some obsession with jazz music. The anthropomorphic squirrel dropped dead from heatstroke, a cube still clung in his versatile, sturdy claws, carrying out his directive until death took him over not too long ago, reuniting with his companion in the great beyond. Overtime, the squirrel's cohort became mad with revelation and supposedly committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. The only thing found to give such assumption was his thick, black, soft cap with a small peak near the edge of the cliff.

Jeanette's memories filled her with sadness for her fallen comrades, knowing almost every single one of their faces and voices. She knew them since her first memories as a helpless worker, remembering them alive as if it were yesterday, considering them her "siblings," the closest thing to family she ever had because they were all she knew. Sure, they turned on each other and him when there was no food left to survive, resorting to looting, murder, even cannibalism. She still considered them the only family she had, unable to bring herself to kill them in defense, running away, cowardly hiding and waited until the mass killing ended. Now, seeing all those she knew dead and rotting everywhere… Since then she never tried to look back at them again, only at a time of absolute need, and that need was now.

Jeanette looks over the bodies scattered about, they were still wondering the streets of an uninhabitable wasteland and cleaning a long hopeless cause until they gave their last breath for it yet they didn't. Deep down, she felt like a grave robber. Worse, Jeanette felt guilty for them to die and not her.

_They don't need to worry about their troubles anymore. Another man's death is another man's survival, _Jeanette shook the thought from her mind. Showing respect for the decomposing squirrel, Jeanette carefully exchanges her boots, trying hard not to think about the feelings she felt when they died.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Walking along the eroded train tracks, sporting new boots, Jeanette chirps triumphantly as she and Luxor made their way down the tracks to lower Manhattan. The chipette climbs off the tracks as she reaches her exit station, Luxor following closely behind her.

She passes a series of check stands for the train station. Suddenly a high-tech holographic-ad appears on the walls, displaying static images of luxurious Buy N' Large spaceships leaving Earth.

A voice comes on over the advertisement.

_"TOO MUCH GARBAGE IN YOUR FACE? THERE'S PLENTY OF SPACE OUT IN SPACE!"_ Images with workers like her still on the surface, all with content of cleaning, like a janitorial advertisement.

At last, she reaches the last road leading to her destination. As she stepped off the ramp, a huge holographic-ad appears overhead, the same announcing voice returning.

"_SPEND YOUR FIVE YEAR CRUISE IN STYLE! WAITED UPON TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY BY OUR FURRY CREW, WHILE YOUR CAPTAIN CHARTS A COURSE FOR NONSTOP ENTERTAINMENT, FINE DINING, AND WITH OUR ALL ACCESS HOVER CHAIRS, EVEN GRANDMA CAN JOIN THE FUN, THERE'S NO NEED TO WALK!_" She seen these ads before, but she despised them for showing things other anthropomorphic beings and humans enjoyed while she is here on this planet. Not to mention her other companions' dead and rotting away without a care from any other anthropomorphic beings on these moving representative pictures of the human society they were serving. Those humans and other anthropomorphic animals will never know who they were or what happened on this world. Jeanette continues on her walk home as the ad continues.

"_THE AXIOM_,_ PUTTING THE STAR IN EXECUTIVE STARLINER!_" Another image appears, showing the annoying overly optimistic Buy N' Large chief executive officer Shelby Forthright in a fine suit, an executive Buy N' Large pin on his lapel. Short gray spotted hair parted to the right sat on the square faced, clean shaved middle-aged man.

"Because at Buy N' Large, space is the final fun-tier!" The great ship's engines thunderously lifts off as the holographic-screen fades away, overlooking an enormous manufactured concave, miles wide and thousands of feet deep in the dried up Hudson Bay now empty like the Grand Canyon. It was the launch pad for the _Axiom _as seen in the communiqué.

She walks on what's left of the Brooklyn Bridge that hasn't collapsed, its main support towers still standing, sections of the bridge still attached. Jeanette spots a mammoth vehicle near the broken edge of the crossing.

_Finally,_ Jeanette thought as she walked up to the large truck, a Tonka-like transport with treads, broken down on the bridge with other smaller vehicles scattered about. She pulls a lever on the side of the back, the sound of loud and obsolete hydraulic actuators activating, lowering a ramp. Jeanette is home from another day of hard labor.

* * *

><p>I'm not fully familiar with <em>The Nutty Squirrels<em> and saw a clip of the cartoon only once and listened to their "Uh Oh" song. Where? I don't know 'bout the clip but I listened to the song on _**youtube**_. Anyhow, i looked them up under **_Google Images_** and there are at least some different versions of them. The first one had the first album that showed two squirrels, the ones that were portrayed in the aforementioned cartoon clip, which I used in this story. Another one had four and a third had three, though unlike the others, they had names: _Shirley_, _Squirrely_ and _Melvin_ . . . makes you wonder if _Shirey _and/or _Squirrely_ had ever shouted "MEEELL-VIIIIIN!" akin to the famous "AAAAALLLL-VIIIIIIIIN!" first name ultimatum. Like _The Chipmunks_, _The Nutty Squirrels_ were featured having the defining speed-up voices. However, **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._**'s _Chipmunks_ favored popular music whilst _The Nutty Squirrels_ favored jazz, particularly of the bebop variety.  
>One last thing to note is the initials, "D. E." represents <em><strong>Don Elliot<strong>_, one of the jazz musicians that created the imitative group along with **_Alexander "Sascha" Burland_**.  
>If anybody has more information about <em>The Nutty Squirrels<em>, I wouldn't mind hearing about it, being a little interested in learning more about them :)


	3. Home Sweet Truck

If there's much appreciation for this story, than there should be plenty of reviews and I'll get the next chapter up soon!

**WALL-E and EVE In Love: **Are you completely ignoring me or are you explicitly doing this just to annoy me? If it's the latter, I assure you, I'm annoyed . . .

**DISCLAIMER**

_**Bagdasarian Productions **_owns the rights to_ The Chipettes_.

_Luxor_ is a fictional character in the animated television series, Tutenstein, produced by _**Porchlight Entertainment**_ for _**Discovery Kids**_ based on the comic by _**Jay Stephens**_ published in _**Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse**_.

* * *

><p>This truck is in essence, her house. Inside, rows upon rows of rotating shelves filled with salvaged trash, or to her, treasures. Interesting items she found and collected from the trash compacting over the years, probably since she first picked up a shovel. Since then she has retrieved and compiled seemingly everything random she could find: old broken children's toys, parking cones, pony ride stands, hand tools, antique clocks, old books, Christmas lights, utility-home appliances, hardware, clothes, a drum, signs, anything.<p>

Jeanette takes off her new boots and gloves, humming cheerfully to the tunes of the music from earlier as she finally settles down for the day. She removes her goggles, exposing her spectacled emerald green eyes adjusting to the harsh light flooding inside the truck. She hangs her boots, gloves, and goggles near the entrance as she walks down the center aisle to the other end of the truck, dusting off and unzipping her filthy overall jump suit revealing a purple skirt as well as taking off her navy blue sweater, revealing a fuchsia tank top over a purple tank top. Jeanette drags her feet to her humble section-of-the-truck of a home, a fabric sheet with its ends tied to metal rods on opposite sides with another sheet draped over it with a tattered pillow on one end, resembling a hammock, her bed. A stack of car batteries lay next to where she sleeps, wired to a switch to all the hanging Christmas lights in the truck, serving as the only light source.

Jeanette sets down her bag and suit, collapsing on her hammock, Luxor lies on the floor exhausted from the walk as much as Jeanette was. Her whole body ached but doesn't mind though, for she grown use to the stresses and pain of heavy-lifting physical labor, and her body showed it.

Despite her thin frame, Jeanette is physically fit having barely survived starvation on canned food and collected ground/rainwater, sanitary or not. Her fur fifthly from almost a lifetime worth of stoop labor in the dirt and not being bathed in a very, _very_ long time. She felt somewhat uncomfortable that her unclean fur coated with a thin layer of sweat from the scorching 40˚+ Celsius heat. Her body pale from wearing the work suit protecting her from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, the areas of fur exposed to the sun had extreme tans, mostly on her forearms and face except where the goggles shielded her eyes.

Of all the things making her body look eroded and revolting were the numerous, almost unaccountable marks of past injuries covering her from head to toe. All the scars were the marks left by the dangerous, often unforgiving work and environment. There were scars after scars of healed or partially healed scrapes. Blisters, cuts, calluses, burns, and gashes spread all over her arms, legs, and torso, most of them old and some recent, and more additions to her already grizzled body every new day of working, every inch of her weather-beaten, making her skin coarse as fine sandpaper in most places. With no proper medical supplies that she did not possess, Jeanette could only live with the almost endless pain of new wounds and reopened, infected ones on a daily basis.

The most striking features of her were in her torso and her right arm. A small, crude looking device embedded inside the right of her chest, shape and size of an ancient medical device with scar tissue surrounding it. It had a glowing yellow energy meter with an electrical socket built into it. It's an externally charged artificial pacemaker.

The second feature was her natural looking cybernetic prosthetic composed of her right forearm, microprocessors capable of controlling the movements of the limb is attached to the severed nerve ending at her elbow. The titanium fingers and joints worn rough with scratches and nicks from all the work she does. A long scar ran from where the lightweight cybernetic limb meets flesh at the elbow, up the back of her arm where it splits into two different long scars. One scar traveled over her chest to her pacemaker, containing the biodegradable line supplying power to the arm. The other scar ran up her neck, and into the back of her head into her cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor functions. This scar contains the nano-fiber wiring that processes bioelectric signals in her brain, allowing her to control her arm through a neural link at the speed of her thoughts. The arm lets her to lift considerable heavy objects like trash cubes and has no sense of touch in that arm so she can't feel pain. At the cost of drawing small amounts of power from her pacemaker and it constantly itched at the wiring scar where it connected her.

She looks exhausted from taking a look at herself, the years of endless labor on her drained her strength, but she was just glad that she makes it through the day and still in one piece, mostly. Jeanette acquired the majority of larger scars, especially her prosthetic arm, from accidents when doing her directive since she was just a child. She was very clumsy at the time and still is. Though for her, the memories of those times as a child-worker are too painful to remember, there was lots of pain inflicted on her body from her contraption of an arm, and there even were no anesthetics or painkillers available back then. The consequences on her and her fellow workers were worse, trying to get used to her replacement arm and unintentionally harming others and herself. Though she was now used to them to the point they were finally part of her that what really mattered.

After a few minutes of laying down resting, Jeanette gets up and decides to find her form of relaxation in this hellhole. She removes what appears to be a video cassette from a toaster, its title still readable on the old tape: Hello Dolly.

Placing it in an old VCR, she turns it on, and an ancient TV screen flickers to life as the cheerful tune of actors dance and sing '_Put On Your Sunday Clothes_.' The image and sound quality poor, but Jeanette doesn't mind. Humming to the music, she pulls out what she found today from her bag and sorts them out. She remembers the trash lid she unreasonably took home, but felt an urge to dance to her favorite tune with it like a hat much like how the actors do. She pulls out an unsolved three-dimensional mechanical puzzle cube with nine blue, chartreuse yellow, green, pink, purple and red stickers covering the six faces.

"Oh." She sets it aside, thinking about how to solve it later. She then pulls out an eating utensil with a hollowed out bowl of a spoon with tints of a fork at the tip. Jeanette never saw one before. She stares at the collection of spoons and forks, confused.

At her wits end, she sets it in between.

Finally, she picks out a handheld, rectangular metallic object out of the bag, without looking, she flips a switch, and the rows of shelves rotate to reveal a box full of them. She places it in with the others, and carefully aligns them.

_Perfect_! She nods in approval to herself over the precision of her work of placing one of hundreds of lighters in a single mass.

Finishing her collection, Jeanette draws her attention to new music coming from the video playing on the screen.

It's not like '_Put On Your Sunday Clothes_' where it was so cheerful and energetic. No, this one has a soft, slow, and sweet sound. A handsome male actor sang along with a woman on the TV screen, in a passionate tone, gently holding her hand all the while, kissing her.

Instantly mesmerized by this image, Jeanette slowly brings up her cassette player and presses RECORD without looking away from the TV screen.

"_And that is all…that love's about…_

_And that is all…that love's about…"_

Fazed by the image before her, Jeanette thought of the picture itself as the concept of something she doesn't understand, but just knew. Something she learned to be a happy feeling, called "love."

"_That it only...took a moment..._

_To be loved… _

_A whole…life …loooooong" _

Jeanette stood there, fazed by the song. It seemed so warm, so safe, so full of kindness and care. To hold a man's hand, feeling all of his warmth run through and feeling it to be the whole world. It felt like the greatest thing in the universe, having another being giving him or herself to you and you give him or her all your emotions and feelings for one another, if she could experience it herself.

Becoming lost in thought, Jeanette realized she held her own hands, the coolness of her metallic hand grasping her flesh hand snapping her senses out of trance, filling the void of isolation instead of the warm fantasy of warm company of a handsome man.

Pushing those thoughts in the back of her mind, Jeanette grabs her bag and goes outside.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The hot sun disappeared below the horizon giving way a remarkably purple evening twilight along the western horizon. Luxor wandered around outside the truck as Jeanette cleans out her bag. The winds slightly picking up felt good on her scarred, bare arms and neck after a long day, among the only forms of physical comfort she knew, even over sleeping.

A small hole in the brown clouds above opens up. Jeanette takes notice, pausing and looked up, entranced by a sight she seldom beheld. The polluted clouds parted to reveal the darkness of outer space, a void of incomprehensible vastness and the realm of existence for billions upon billions of stars shining all at once, lighting up the sky like diamonds.

She has never seen a starry night sky, at least not one with starlight bright enough to shine through the haze and the trash somehow in orbit, a beautiful sight like seeing the whole universe for all it was for the first time.

Remembering the word beautiful, Jeanette presses PLAY on her recorder. The soft and loving tune of '_It Only Takes A Moment_' played out.

With the song in the background and the starry sky above her, Jeanette allows her mind to wonder, remembering about the ideas of beauty, companionship, and love. It must be a wonderful thing as the rarity of a clear night sky. Something so inviting and majestic like the infinite reaches of space, the distant stars and worlds that harbor the secrets of life and the unknown was what must be like people holding hands.

"Maybe..." Jeanette thinks aloud.

"Beautiful is up there." Just imagining how beautiful love was. Wonderful. Heavenly. Unreachable...

As comforting and inviting as the song and sky say about how great a thing love can be, yet just like the stars, something she can never feel, grasp or hold. It wasn't something in the air she catches like a paper leaf in the wind. There is nothing she could ever grasp on this world to feel so loved, Jeanette was just one chipette, possibly the only humanoid being left stuck on a lonely planet and no one that she knows, probably in all of humanity, even exist.

Jeanette felt the sky entrancing and haunting to her, having seen a rare, beautiful thing that reminded her she could never treasure it personally, as if taken from her. She somberly looks up into the sky with the eyes of an abandoned child...

_Maybe…love… is up there. _

Jeanette feels something all too familiar, something she felt since the day she never had any form of contact, if Luxor qualifies for any exception, not just in population count but also in relation or significant bond to any living being. She felt this way since losing her fellow workers, including the other humans who fled Earth. Not since as far as her memories could reach. Certain images of faces she once knew who brought her to this world of all worlds called parents faded out into nothing, as she could not remember who they were or what happened to them. After that image in her head, Jeanette knew she was an orphan, raised in this dystopian world by the brutal hands of nature with only her fellow workers to care for her until they all died when she was still young. She was only taught to read, speak, survive, some science and collect trash, nothing else until she joins her fallen workers the day she drops dead as well, spent and worked to death like everyone else.

She worked and worked as told, unfazed by her dead and dying coworkers even when some tried to kill her for survival necessities. All she could do is run and hide, and do what she could to clean up, to do her routine, her directive, her down to earth job until she dies, the purpose she been unwillingly given. She cursed everything that happened to the world she now solely resides, for causing the roots of the problems for her being stuck on Earth to watch everyone she knew perish then trapped on a planet by herself, causing the feeling to transpire in the first place. Questioning whether she was fortunate to have lived through what no one else could, she doubted the purpose of her very existence. For her to have such feelings, she knew of this feeling since her first memories but never realized how bad this feeling was, over the long untold years of her life on this world until now…she was all alone...

Jeanette snaps back into reality. She could barely hear her music from a raging howling sound and felt her skin tingle from a fast-blowing cold wind through her clothes. She notices the winds are fast now and the hole in the sky gone. She looks around to assess her surroundings.

On the right side of the horizon, something big amassed in the distance, and growing upwards, forward, and fast in an enormous wall of dust heading straight for the city outskirts, toward her home, darkening the sky in its wake: a sandstorm.

These things were deadly, seeing firsthand their seer power and barely survived several sandstorms. Jeanette hastily cleans the rest of her bag and closes the hatch but froze when she forgot Luxor as the feline loudly meowed outside. She lowers the ramp again.

"LUXOR!" She watches the cat get back in and manages to close the ramp in time just as the first columns of dust started blowing into the truck.

Once safe, Jeanette slumps to the floor, getting over almost being caught outside in a sandstorm.

Luxor rubs his head against Jeanette's side, purring in a pleading voice. Remembering she hasn't fed the cat or herself yet, Jeanette gets up and finds a stack of Buy N' Large coconut milk, canisters of collected rainwater, boxes of sponge cakes and canned beans. She unscrews a can of sweet, thick milky white liquid and pours it into a bowl for Luxor and he greedily forces himself to the bowl in front of Jeanette. The chipette then unwraps a golden sponge cake filled with creamy filling for herself as she opens a small compartment in her prosthetic arm, containing small hand tools, and pulls out a knife. She opens the canned beans with relative ease and eats one of the only sources of food she has had as far back as she can remember. Aside from collecting polluted rainwater, what else was there? It's better to be malnourished than dead from starvation.

She notices Luxor already dozed off. Tired and exhausted herself, Jeanette decides to turn in for the night.

Jeanette removed her metallic pink glasses and, in one well-practiced movement, slid the joint off her detachable prosthetic arm from its arm-attachment, and placed it on a shelf nearby. Sleeping with a prosthetic is very uncomfortable on the stump where her forearm used to be.

She switches the Christmas lights off, slipping into the hammock in the pitch black interior, unable to sleep with the creepy howl of the hurricane-force winds gives her a spine-tingling chill. Adding to that, her thoughts ran freely about the just-discovered pain of loneliness in her isolation from humanity, with no one and nothing to comfort her suffering.

She always endured suffering alone, but now it began to get to her, the core of her being slowly and surely eroding, going to break down eventually, physically and mentally as it did to her comrades.

As the night darkens and the sandstorm worsens, it gets colder, sub-freezing. Even in the confinement of the truck, away from the one hundred fifty kilo per hour blast of dirt and rocks, she curls up against the cold in her hammock, like a baby. Her only source of warmth and comfort is the loving tune of '_It Only Takes A Moment_.'

She turns it on though the music reminded her of something she can never have, being able to requite her loneliness, the soothing music the only thing that felt like a mother cuddling a child, or a loved one comforting her to sleep.

Grabbing the nearest shelf, Jeanette rocks her hammock like a cradle, closing her eyes and drowning her hearing into the song, giving her _some_ peace over the hellish gale-winds howling outside.

Eventually, exhaustion prevails over her dreadful thoughts as Jeanette finally falls asleep.

* * *

><p>Like Simon in his story, Jeanette is based on her 80's90's incarnation who has only two prosthetic acquired from injury and/or birth defects. She has a pacemaker which will come up to serve a purpose much later in the story. As for the cybernetic prosthetic arm, I based it on the character _Max Tennyson's _future self in the twenty-seventh episode of Ben 10 entitled "Ben 10,000." If there are those that aren't familiar with it, you could probably look it up under _**y**_**outube** or **Ben 10 Wiki - Cartoon Network**. The prosthetic right forearm incorporates some smaller scale devices used in the movie (like a cutting laser or tool compartment for instance) and enables Jeanette to lift heavy objects despite her small stature, keeping her close to the humble and ancient mechanical robot in the film.

**A/N**- If you noticed, the stickers on the Rubik cube each represents the trademark color of each _Chipmunk_ and _Chipette_ with the exception of Eleanor. Since she and Theodore share the same color, I gave her "chartreuse yellow" which is a yellow color mixed with a small amount of green. Chartreuse is a color halfway between yellow and green named because of its resemblance to the green color of one of the French liqueurs called _green chartreuse_ introduced in 1764. The first recorded use of _chartreuse_ to mean the color that is now called _chartreuse yellow_ in English was in 1892.

**A/N:** The tank tops that I give Jeanette is based on the article of clothing that her CGI counterpart wears in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.


	4. On the Job

According to my story status, J·NETTE thus far has twenty six more hits and thirty one more visitors than SIM·N! That's pretty amazing despite SIM·N having eight more chapters than J·NETTE! =D

**Missuss: **Thank you for reviewing!

**trex841: **Thanks for pointing that out, but umm . . . why state trying not to sound mean?

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes_ are a fictional group of anthropomorphic chipmunk singers as the female counterparts of _The Chipmunks_ first appearing on the 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series which **_Bagdasarian Productions_** holds the right to the characters.

_Luxor _belongs to cartoon series Tutenstein, produced by **_Porchlight Entertainment_** for **_Discovery Kids_** based on the comic by **_Jay Stephens_** published in **_Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse_**.

* * *

><p>A warning sound goes off, disturbing the silent dark truck's interior. Jeanette's simulated pacemaker flashed a red light reading: WARNING! CHARGE LOW!<p>

Jeanette stirs, groggy from semi-nightmare-free sleep. Her eyelids weighing a thousand pounds as she tries to awake. Groaning as she tries to move, Jeanette falls out of the hammock in the dark, crashing onto the metal floor with a thud. It's so dark she can't find where she landed. She now has a headache from falling face first, and not fully conscious enough to note her detached prosthetic arm, failing to pull herself up.

"This is gonna be a bad day…" Jeanette groggily commented as she holds her splitting headache.

Feeling her way along the wall with both hands, Jeanette finds the lever to the door. A sudden and unpleasant sensation stirs her more awake as the sun's rays pour in, blinding her, followed by the sting of cold wind on her torso, and the loud roar of the hydraulic-actuated ramp lowering. At least she's up now to charge her pacemaker.

She doesn't fully remember why she had one to begin with but long ago, she along with others she knew had impulse-generating tissue fail to sense a heartbeat within the normal beat-to-beat period that stimulated the ventricle of the heart with a short low voltage pulses. Those who were born with a block in the heart's electrical conduction system or because the sinuatrical node is not fast enough had an artificial pacemaker implanted, designed to treat bradycardia. As far back as Jeanette could remember, she had the heaving but everlasting artificial cardiovascular device that maintained an adequate heart rate, keeping her alive. All she had to do was keep it charged and she'll stay alive.

Now outside, Jeanette flips open a control panel to the truck, holding a long cable attached to her artificial pacemaker as she plugs it into the truck. In a split second, a generator activates from the plugged device, transferring energy from solar panels mounted on the roof of the truck. In an instant, the electrical charge temporarily zaps her, now fully conscious and charged. She shakes the last bits of sleep off as she walks back inside to prepare for the day.

_What day?_ she wonders. It's the same thing for who knows how long. Yet it's the only thing she can do, giving her what she thinks is her purpose, but could use a change, with more living beings to talk to, or a new routine. Remembering the film from last night, she shrugs off her thoughts of that possibility, for her life of collecting trash was all she ever knew or will know.

Zoning out so much, Jeanette accidentally steps on Luxor's tail, the cat letting out a yelp.

"AAaah!" They both jump. Luxor seems to be fine though. The creature has been through worse for Jeanette found him as a starving kitten wondering through the trash mountains, all cut up from sharp objects everywhere, but saved him from a landslide. Luxor on his nametag, she took him home, not that it made her feel less lonely like she just learned but like everything else she found, was very curious, Luxor too, but Jeanette kept an eye out for his well-being.

She points to Luxor and then behind her.

"Stay," she says with a stern look. Luxor does so and Jeanette seems satisfied. Now suited up with supply bag and shovel in hand, she walks off to work.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Scoop, shovel, compact. Scoop, shovel, compact. Scoop...

So annoying the way she knows how to carry out her task of garbage compacting. At a new spot in town, Jeanette shovels pile after pile into one of the many hydraulic compactors throughout the city. Usually making many as ten cubes every minute and preparing to make another tower along with all the monumental trash skyscrapers.

Occasionally Jeanette comes across something to add to in her bag. One particular item she examines with complete bafflement is an article of short and legless clothing, a strip of elasticized material at the three ends and an opening in the front of the garment.

"Hmm," she slowly examines it for a second, bringing them close and over her head.

"Well . . . this certainly is not some headwear . . ." She takes the garment off her head and tosses it into her bag.

Jeanette finds interesting artifacts later that day. One of them made distant beeping sounds from afar by pressing a button on an ancient tactile identification rubberized plastic key fob. Another one a flat wooden paddle with a small rubber ball attached in the center via elastic string repetitively hits her in the face and a hand held cylindrical pressure vessel that discharged foam, knocking Jeanette off her feet. Jeanette quickly chucks the foam displacement device far away.

The day drags on as cube after cube, and item after item is stacked away, Jeanette never stopping for anything, until she finds a big refrigerator in her path of shoveling.

Jeanette tries opening it, but it wouldn't budge an inch. Jeanette opens up his tool compartment in her cybernetic arm and pulls a tiny, silver cylinder out. She pushes a button and a red beamed pulse sonic laser emits, cutting through the fridge door like a knife through warm butter. The door of the fridge falls off, revealing something Jeanette has seen before, in old tomes she borrowed from her studies.

_A living photosynthetic organism! _Jeanette looks at it in amazement, focusing her eyes on the simple weed.

"Oooooh!" Jeanette takes in the newly discovered living organism in interest. It looked so frail, so insignificant, but so alive, a tiny bright thing against the ugly brown world around it. Nothing compared to the inanimate objects he found. The object is obviously something special to look after, like Luxor.

She carefully scoops up the plant into her hands, and places it into the newly discovered old shoe fit for a small child in her bag. She wipes off a speck of dirt from it. This tiny thing now bewilders her it looked . . .

_Beautiful, s_he thought.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Later that afternoon, Jeanette decides to stop for the day. Having found a few more objects to add to her collection, she makes her way home, her mind still on the plant she found. Thinking back to the word she used to describe it, beautiful, it truly was something different, but why, she could not figure out.

Contemplating her thoughts as she reaches for the door…something catches Jeanette's eye…

* * *

><p>So who's appearing up next?<br>a) Alvin  
>b) Simon<br>c) Theodore

Or should I make Jeanette a homosexual and have her paired up with  
>a) Eleanor<br>b) Brittany  
>c) Charlene<p>

Pick your poison . . .


	5. 1st Encounter

If you people read the summary, I specifically stated that I would be switching Jeanette's and Simon's parts around for this story, meaning I never intentionally was gonna have another character play the part of EVE other than Simon himself. Enjoy the chapter!

**vote4coolige15:** Thanks for voting!

**WALL-E and EVE In Love: **Oh, so you CAN say something different! ¬¬

**Knight of Renaissance Light:** Yeah, it's quite obvious that I would have Simon hence I mentioned having him and Jeanette switch roles in this story back in chapter one . . . or at least I think I did . . . o0;

**UniqueRose Damascena: **Thanks for voting! Hope to see a review from you again!

**trex841: **In order:  
>1) Oh. Well, I don't take offense if anybody corrects me as long as they don't talk down on me or otherwise. Though I try my best to write as best as I can, I still make mistakes :). Even <strong>Victory's Raconteur<strong> makes a mistake here and there in _his _stories . . .  
>2) Underwear.<br>3) N/A

**DISCLAIMER**

**_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_** holds the rights to _The Chipettes _under **_Bagdasarian Productions_**.

_The Chipmunks _are an American music group of singing anthropomorphic chipmunks owned by **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr. _**under the formerly called **_Bagdasarian Film Corporations_** now called **_Bagdasarian __Productions_**, owned by **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_Luxor _is a fictional cat in the Tutenstein cartoon series produced by **_Porchlight Entertainment_** for **_Discovery Kids_** based on the comic by **_Jay Stephens_** published in **_Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse_**.

* * *

><p>"What the?"<p>

Jeanette stares at the bright red circle on the ground, appearing to have materialized out of nowhere. Removing her ultraviolet goggles, keeping her corrective lens on, maybe she was seeing things. It either moved or flickered, something Jeanette never seen or read about while studying during her free time. Maybe it is another weird object she could add to her collection, but it doesn't seem right.

_What the hell is that?_ As she reaches to touch it, the red circle suddenly moves from her, to the other side of the bridge.

_If it's a bug, it's a species I haven't read about._ Jeanette sets down her things as she walks over to the mysterious circle. It moves again, as if trying to get away from her. She tries blocking it, but it continues to move. It does a slow circle around Jeanette. She tries to twist around to see it without moving, following the dot in a complete 360° circle and falls over. Jeanette feels foolish for falling for that failure of common sense, yet she is getting some fun out of it by chasing the little bright dot around. The dot finally moves down the bridge at high speed. Jeanette runs after it, trying to catch it, chasing the dot down the street and into the open Hudson valley.

Unknown to Jeanette, distracted by this one red dot, another dot appears behind her, then another, tens of them, hundreds to thousands of them, all in a giant circle. Appearing on buildings and quickly traveling down the edifices, streets, and into the dry river, all of them enclosing around the one dot Jeanette chased after.

Having chased this thing in circles, the strange dot stops in the middle of the deserted valley.

"Aha!" Jeanette triumphantly yells, oblivious to the other red dots enclosing her.

Jeanette reaches to grab the dot but found it is just light.

"Huh?"

The other dots triangulate with the center dot. She notices the ground shaking and the air getting hotter.

"HUH?" Jeanette exclaims, hearing a low roar, something like the sandstorms, but different, like something fiery and mechanical. She looks up, finally seeing the source of the noise, small balls of fire in the air coming down right above her fast!

Screaming in panic and out of reflex, Jeanette runs in one direction to avoid the threat. The bellowing noise has become very loud, scorching hot and windy altogether. Jeanette losses her footing and is blown off her feet by the unknown object. A column of fire, smoke, and kicked up dirt filling the air with deafening sounds, suddenly winding down in a mechanical whir, all is calm.

Barely moving, Jeanette shakily risks a peak at the source of the noise and heat that knocked her down.

The dust still thick to see through but the ground now turned to molten black glass. Jeanette finally sees the object: a rocket ship.

She slowly gets up, still shaken but now knows what just landed. The spacecraft had three extended engines attached to a tall body. A Buy N' Large logo stretched along the side, along with the letters 'ARV' written in futuristic bold font. Jeanette cautiously approaches this thing, wondering what it was doing here.

A whirring sound emits from the spacecraft, causing Jeanette to jump over the hissing of a hatch opening up at the rear of the unknown ship. Jeanette dives behind the nearest rock to hide, no more than a few meters away. Something lowers from the opening, a six foot long cylindrical capsule, made of translucent metal, Jeanette noticed a layer of frost covering the whole capsule, as if emerging from a subzero freezer being lowered by the mechanical arm and letting go of it, the object levitating a few inches off the ground longitudinally.

It looked like a cryonic tube with no seams along its surface to form any kind of opening, if it was one solid piece. A holographic keypad appears on its spotless surface. Through the tinted layers of frost and the capsules semi-transparent material, Jeanette could make out a silhouette within the capsule. Its shape oddly enough resembled something akin to a body, or an object with long and broad curvatures. It looks like this capsule held something...or _someone_ inside.

Jeanette watches on in fascination, sinking back behind her cover every time these machines created a loud noise. A smaller robotic arm emerges from the ship's mechanical arm, punching in some codes into the capsules keypad. As the last code punched in, the capsule emits a soft whir, getting louder and louder, like its getting ready to-

PSSSSSST!

Jeanette jumps in surprise as the pod suddenly hatches open, cowering behind the rock.

_What **is** that?_

Seconds go by without a single sound, drawing in a notion for Jeanette that all was clear. Her curiosity gets the better of her as she hesitantly peeks over, the steam slowly fading to reveal…

An anthropomorphic chipmunk thawed, reclined lifelessly inside the pod but upon closer inspection, it was breathing. When Jeanette focuses clearly at the fully unfrozen chipmunk with the steam completely cleared, gasps at the sight.

The chipmunk inside the pod was male, the most handsome chipmunk male.

Simon.

He lays reclined in his thawed out cryonic pod in deep sleep, like a sleeping angel. An angel with sandy brown hair spiked in different directions on top of the handsomest face Jeanette laid eyes on, or the only face Jeanette seen in her vivid memory. He was, to her, the perfect looking chipmunk: soft cheeks, delicate lips, a small black buttoned nose, narrow jaw, skinny neck, and perfect fair patch of short light fur that looked smoother than the finest memory foam or silk.

The chipmunk suddenly stirred, awakening from suspended animation. He sleepily opens his eyes, turning over to sit up, and at that moment, Jeanette was suddenly transfixed upon the deepest gray blue eyes with a twinkle in them akin to starlight.

Slowly stepping out onto the ground, he looks around, taking in his surroundings. He stood four feet nine inches. Even from afar, his voluptuous body looked impossibly stunning. He looked clean, healthy, and fresh from a long slumber in cryonic sleep, and he appeared to be young, around his late teens. He wore some sort of high-tech skintight suit, matching the curvatures of his body, with state-of-the-art foldout holographic-pads, biodegradable scanners and a wide variety of scientific equipment strapped to his utility belt. He also had built-in anti-gravitational servomechanism onto his heels of his pale tint of azure color boots that matched his gloves strapped on his legs, his suit all a shade of blue that resembled steel. Translucent nano-wires pulsate in his suit's circuitry, adding technological beauty to his physical magnificence that more than stole Jeanette's breath.

Simon punches in a code on the cylinder he emerged from and in a second, the pod began to separate into pieces, folding into each other and shrinking until the entire thing was a pocket sized cylinder! Jeanette is amazed but still focuses on him. He places the cylinder into one of his many side pockets and pulls out some holographic pad from his utility belt, scanning the area around him.

Captivated by this Adonis's impossible image, Jeanette watched him move with such fluid motion as if walking on air itself. The toxic waste not leaving a single microbe of dust on his figure, the sterility surrounded him like an aurora of his own light. Having seen nothing but this Earth's ruined landscape and its mountains of trash and the deceased for so long, the figure made it almost painful for Jeanette to see more of him, like staring into the sun. Being accustomed to the simplicities of what other humans and anthropomorphic beings left behind as treasures to her seeing him now, she looks at him like even the starriest night skies of the entire cosmos are nothing compared to him. The ugliness of the destroyed environment around him makes her feel out of place, her universe shattered.

He was, to her, the honest to god definition of "beautiful." She muttered under her breath, her head tilted, time seemed to slow as she feels a slow build of something inside, a sense of warmth and yearning ran through her, feelings of instantaneous attraction and longing she never felt before.

The ship's robotic arm retracts. Jeanette snaps out of her trance at the sudden noise. She ducks again behind her cover, unsure of what these machines were doing by themselves.

She kept her eyes on the chipmunk moving further away from the ship. A whirring sound heard, engines firing up.

_The ship!_

Jeanette runs to escape the approaching blast waves of the launching spacecraft. Unfortunately, the heat of the rocket engines blows Jeanette over her head several times a few meters away as the ship achieves lift off. A column of fire and smoke engulfs the surface. In a few seconds, the roar and heat of its engines got quieter, the ship climbing higher into the polluted sky as it disappears into the clouds.

Shaken, having survived twice from being burned and blown away, Jeanette raises her head from a ducking position, making sure it's safe. All is calm again.

_Wait! The chipmunk!_

She looks around the dissipating column of smoke and dust, before spotting him a few hundred feet away unharmed, still surveying the ground if nothing happened.

He stops for a moment, looking up into the direction the spaceship took off if waiting for it to leave. He looks around him, all clear. He raises into the air, spinning lightly, his antigravity boots glowing, emitting no sound.

"Whoa!" Jeanette is fascinated further by the chipmunk's ability to fly.

He stops spinning, his suit now changed into something sleek if it was supposed to move fast. In the blink of an eye, he fluidly whirls off into the distance, like a bird, eager to fly after a long time breaking away from a long slumber. The chipmunk felt the need to feel free.

He whips around, doing aerobatic circles, rolls, and loops. Jeanette whistles low at the display of such beauty of the chipmunk in the air and his power of flight, she follows his fluid movements, trying to keep up with his incredible speed, almost going supersonic as he finishes a high loop. He makes a low pass over her, near the spot he took off. The chipmunk doesn't notice her, leaving her in the dust of his wake.

He moved flawlessly, quietly and smoothly, like dancing in the sky, his hair waving softly like swimming through water despite being in the blast of wind. Jeanette brushes off her glasses, from the dust cloud and still perplexed if he was a real angel.

"Awwwwh," she coos, love drunk at the sight of him swimming through the air at high speed, leaving light blue contour trails in his wake.

After swift movements around the trash towers, he hovers over the spot he started from, spinning flawlessly to a stop on the ground, touching down pretending he was a great dancer at the crescendo of a performance on an emissive stage, being highly praised.

His hidden audience of one, still behind a large boulder gazed upon him with large, longing innocent eyes. As she watched him dance through the air, Jeanette felt if she should dance alongside him, like those actors in the movie last night.

_I wish I could dance like—No. dance like that…with him, _she wondered if she could hold his hand? Maybe kiss him? Jeanette realized she wanted, no, needed to see more of him.

Only now did Jeanette finally understand what the meaning behind falling in love meant, like the song, '_It Only Takes A Moment_.' She was now in love.

Too oblivious to notice her hand clipping away a piece of rock from the boulder and hits the ground ever so lightly, only giving off a drip of a pebble...

**KABOOOOM!**

It happened too fast. The rock she hid behind exploded in a bright blue-white flash and deafening crack of thunder.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Seen from afar, it formed a tiny mushroom cloud, the explosive sound alerted Luxor.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon stared down the direction where the sound came from, his high-frequency hearing detected movement behind him. Instinct kicked in and he whipped around in a millisecond with a high-powered Type-2 DEW plasma rifle at hand, aimed dead-centered at where he fired a single shot. His eyes now shielded by a polarized visor and a holographic heads-up-display activated by his gun's wireless targeting system every time he drew it for better aim. Behind the digitized mask, his gray blue eyes now apathetic and cold blooded, like the eyes of a trained soldier.

He waited for the smoke to clear, to verify what the immediate threat was and if satisfactorily vaporized.

Apparently, he doesn't want anyone or anything watching his joy flight, the only fun he ever gets on his mission to Earth, or his 'directive.' After being in hibernation for a long period, he had to shake the last bits of cryonic sleep out of his system, fast as the instant thawing was. He is still not fully awakened and reactive, the last thing he needed is to be jumped or spied on.

The smoke clears, weapon still trained on his target, Simon doesn't move or blink. Only a portion of the bolder still stood, now inscribed with a giant smoldering three-meter wide hole, edges glowing orange hot and stone turned to glass from the ionized blast.

_Hmm, at least my reflexes are still sharp,_ he thinks to himself as he holsters his plasma rifle to his waist strap with practiced Clint Eastwood style flips, his violet Head's Up Device deactivates, the visor dematerialize into thin air, his gray blue eyes now full of gentleness again as if nothing happened.

Simon returns scanning the environment around him in a gracious state again. He hasn't noticed a terrified chipette bundled up behind what was left of the boulder, trembling uncontrollably from having missed death by a fraction of an inch from the blast where her head had been.

* * *

><p>As a side note, DEW is short for Direct Energy Weapon, a weapons that projectiles comprised forms of pure energy, electromagnetic rays or superheated gas such plasma, pulse sonic, particle beam, carbon lasers and ionized gas which looks like a downsized Covenant plasma rifle from <span>Halo<span>. For those who are not familiar with Halo, it's a science fiction video game franchise created by _**Bungie**_, owned and published by _**Microsoft Game Studios**_ that was released on November 15, 2001 (_Wikipedia_).

A fun fact is "Alice blue" is a pale tint of azure favored by **_Theodore Roosevelt_**'s daughter, **_Alice Roosevelt Longworth _** that sparked a fashion sensation in the United States.

The kind of blue that I described for the uniform worn by _Simon_ is "steel blue," one of the less vibrant shades of blue usually identified as somewhat bluish-grey and it's (hopefully) the shade of blue worn by _Simon_ back in The Alvin Show. I gotten the idea after watching several The Alvin Show episodes that had been uploaded on **_youtube_**.


	6. Confrontation

**trex841: **I wasn't sure how to respond to the third part of your comment, mainly because I was confused about the 'creepy' part and what's with the facepalm?

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes_ are a fictional group of anthropomorphic chipmunk singers belonging to the American production company **_Bagdasarian Productions_** holds the right to the characters.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to both the late _**Ross Bagdasarian Sr.**_ and _**Ross Bagdasarian Jr.**_ as well as _**Janice Karman**_.

_Luxor _is a fictional character in the animated television series, Tutenstein, produced by **_Porchlight Entertainment_** for **_Discovery Kids_** based on the comic by **_Jay Stephens_** published in **_Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse_**.

* * *

><p>Simon scanned everything everywhere he went, using a small paper-thin electrophoresis holograph-pad emitting rays of blue light forming a laser grid upon any object he came across. It processed their material make-up, verifying if it has any biologic content. So far, he hasn't found anything yet, only three processing beeps followed by an '<em>Identified: Specimen Negative<em>' ping from his scanner.

He started his way from the landing site into Sector NA-001, going to survey from outskirt to outskirt, to find the object of his search. Simon have to do it fast, only given two weeks to scout out five hundred square kilometers of barren land on this polluted rock of a planet. He could enjoy a quick flight, though. He couldn't imagine who could survive out here with such sandstorms, extreme temperatures or the thick chemically tainted air.

That said person happened to be following not too far behind him as he made his way into the ruins of the Manhattan battery.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette kept her distance and staying well hidden in the cover of shadows and trash piles, staying behind him for the past couple of hours. She finally stopped shaking from almost getting blown to smithereens. When she worked up the courage to peek from the smoldering bolder, she noticed he was gone. Her instinct told her to stay away from him as possible but something inside her told this is the first interaction with another being besides Luxor she seen since as far back as she can care to remember, still drawn by her inquisitiveness to him. Sure he may be hostile but it's better having the opportunity to have something called "social interaction" for the first time in a while in her life and with a male of the same species no less than being totally lonesome. Having once again surrendering to her curiosity, she cautiously followed him.

The chipmunk's scanner again turned up negative on some pillars of steel structure in front of him, so he moved on. Jeanette went after him once he was out of sight, careful not to make a sound or give away any indication signifying she was there. That meant walking in tiptoe steps and holding her breath most of the time.

Now she dealt with another problem in her mind. How was she going to approach her and introduce herself without dying?

Jeanette's thoughts interrupted by alarm when she sees Luxor approaching the chipmunk searching through car tires in an automotive junk yard. Jeanette shakes her head to get her cat to come back to her but Luxor went on, striding down the piles of trash toward the newcomer.

"Oh no," she whispers, ducking behind cover, expecting the worst. She couldn't stand to watch her companion to get blown u-

_'**BOOMM!'** _

A burst of plasma engulfs where she saw Luxor. Jeanette gasps wide-eyed and gut-punched at the thought of her only friend incinerated!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon instantly whipped around with his plasma rifle, a cold stare on his face trained on a sound that startled him ever so lightly. It's the second time he done that and it's starting to get him that there is something drawn to his presence. The chipmunk is not going to stay spooked and the best solution would always be to destroy whatever unnerved him.

Through the smoke, a lone unscathed feline emerged from the blackened crater he blasted.

Luxor stretches his back as he approaches the chipmunk, his tail swift from left to right once. Simon lowers his weapon, an intriguing smile on his now friendly and gentle face. He holsters his gun and pets Luxor.

"Hmm how adorable! A member of the felidae family!" Jeanette heard him from her cover. He had the very sweetest sounding voice he heard, probably the most beautiful sound that rose and fell in smooth harmonious melody she ever heard before.

She slowly sneaks a peek over the tires, astonished that not only has Luxor survived but also the chipmunk has taken a liking into Luxor, examining him if he's never seen a real live feline before.

Luxor playfully rubbed against Simon as he got his head scratched and petted. He giggles when the dog's licking makes him ticklish. Amazed by his even sweeter and pure giggly voice and the fact his cat had managed to befriend a deadly chipmunk, Jeanette allows herself a small chuckle of relief.

Very. Big. Mistake.

Faster than her mind could process she was being shot at, Jeanette's cover exploded into a blue ball of fire, her eardrums almost bleeding from the blasts.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Having detected a soft humanoid vocal sound behind a pile of tires, a chuckle as volumes as a scream in Simon's hearing enhancements, he instantly realized he and the feline were not alone. Worse, they were being watched.

In precision and speed, Simon drew his plasma rifle and quickly unloaded to where his HUD's sonic detection systems tracked the source of the sound behind a pile of tires.

Simon spots another life form, presumably and astonishingly, an anthropomorphic female chipmunk that's been stalking him. It cowered to the nearest cover. In a few shots, he blasts the stack of tires the figure uses to hide.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Panicked beyond measure, Jeanette's instincts kicked in as she cowers away to the nearest cover, also destroyed. Blinded by fear she makes a run for it, but finds herself at a dead end, realizing all the places to hide all destroyed.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

He finishes off blasting away the last tire stockpile.

_Gotchya, _he had the unknown chipette pinned down. No place to run or hide, she drops to the ground curled up like a baby, shaking in total fear, expecting the worst. He stops shooting, keeping his weapon locked on her.

"You!" he shouts at her, the tenderness of his voice now cold and hostile as his eyes.

"Who are you? Why are you following me?" Jeanette doesn't answer, too terrified and trembling for words. He steps closer, never taking his eyes or weapon off her.

"I said 'who are you?' Respond!" Again, she doesn't say anything,

"ANSWER ME!" he angrily shouted.

She waited for the shot that will finish her off. It doesn't happen but the fear gripping her was convincing enough that she was as good as dead.

Not wanting to die without another look at the most magnificent creature she laid eyes on, she risks a peek at him.

Very slowly, Jeanette raises her head from under her hands, still trembling and curled up like a cowering child. The smoke slowly clearing, she can make out the sight of a steel blue silhouette of her attacker.

She first notices from the ground up a pair of Alice blue antigravity boots strapped to slender calves, then up to his thighs smooth to the touch. She looks up to see a very attractive straight bodyline shape torso, thick structure at the abdominal were visible through the skintight suit. She also finds herself starring down the barrel of his plasma rifle less than a few centimeters from her forehead, its power cell glowing fully recharged.

He stood directly in front of her in a combat stance, his plasma rifle aimed right between her eyes. Jeanette didn't care, she's seeing him up close.

She continued her glances upward, from his strong, masculine structured arms and broad tapered shoulders, up his narrow neck where the Alice blue collar meets furred skin, to his tenderly sculptured face that still possessed the delicate features of an angel with the face of a trained killer.

His dark, reflective visor shielded his eyes, expression unreadable but behind the mask was a face as serious and emotionless as ever. He looked her over, after a few tense seconds, his visor deactivates. At the sight of his bluish gray eyes once again, time slows down for Jeanette as she drinks in his sight. The smoke finally cleared and the sunlight reflected off his steel blue suit. Overall, he looked seductively strong. Through her eyes, the curvatures of his body would intoxicate and inflict lust in any mortal, but he could also just as easily break every bone in her body. He is even more alluring, even in his dangerous state. He's like a handsome, deadly god incarnate to her.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon now had a clear view of the cowering chipette before him as the smoke dissipated. Judging from her weathered humble attire, she was a worker. She also noticed a faded Buy N' Large logo, he realized if she was an actual surviving Buy N' Large cleanup worker, or at least a descendant of one who wore a scavenged uniform over a tattered long sleeved sweatshirt.

Looking over her pathetically weak physical state and the fact she is not armed, she was harmless as a fly. Yet he doesn't loosen his tense stance, she was following him and more of the reason to consider there is still a possibility of her intending to turn on him, so he's ready to blast her if he even thinks she is a threat. He could even kill her with his bare hands if he wanted to, for his advanced skintight suit had neural controlled strength actuators as thin as the cloth of his suit acting like an exoskeleton, giving him near-superhuman strength and reflexes, not including the bone and muscle enhancements given to him during training. Since this pathetic person was rail thin, he could break her in half.

Except, he doesn't feel too concerned to kill this poor chipette for there was something about her before him...

Their eyes made contact with one another. She saw the utter existence of pure awe and wonder in the laser-like stare of his bluish gray eyes and he saw utter innocence in her large, fear ridden, and spectacled dark emerald green eyes. He lets his instincts to kill drain from him, but still in a defensive position to take action.

"Is this your puss?" he calmly asked Jeanette, his voice a little softer this time.

She didn't know what to say. Wasn't he about to kill her or not? Jeanette realizes Luxor approached from behind the chipmunk motioning for his master.

She nods timidly, almost stop shaking altogether. She slowly reaches out for Luxor as she sits up a little. He pulls out his holographic scanner again and activates it on Jeanette, rifle still trained at her in a defensive stance. She is surprised at the bright light shining on her.

Three beeps and a negative ping sounded.

_What is that for? _Jeanette wondered if he is looking for something, because whatever it is, she wasn't it. Before she could say anything, the chipmunk holsters his weapon and walks away without saying another word.

Jeanette sat there in the charred ground of where he attacked her, completely fazed at the sight of him up close.

_He looked at me!_

She sighs lovingly at the clear mental picture of him in her mind but she didn't even say hello. She mentally cursed to herself. At least he let her live another day.

_Well that's a start._

* * *

><p>And like what I had with<em> Jeanette <em>in SIM•N, here_ Simon _isn't wearing his glasses. Well I'll give you an idea of what the color of glasses they're gonna be: A mix of all the color of glasses worn by _Simon _. . . Uuuuhh, well there's actually two colored glasses worn by_ Simon_ ^^;.  
>The black glasses <em>Simon<em> wore in The Alvin Show, the first season of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the direct to video Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein, another direct to video Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet The Wolfman and _CGI Simon_.  
>The blue glasses were worn by <em>Simon<em> in the second to last season of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the only theatrical animated movie A Chipmunk Adventure and direct to video Little Alvin and the Mini-Munks.


	7. La Veire Rose

**trex841: **LOL

**DISCLAIMER**

**_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_** holds the rights to _The Chipettes _under **_Bagdasarian Productions_**.

**_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._**, **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr. _**and**_ Janice Karman_** are the rightful owners of _The Chipmunks_ under **_Bagdasarian Productions_**, formally **_Bagdasarian Film Corporation_**.

_Luxor _is a fictional cat in the Tutenstein cartoon series produced by **_Porchlight Entertainment_** for **_Discovery Kids_** based on the comic by **_Jay Stephens_** published in **_Oni Press' JetCat Clubhouse_**.

* * *

><p>It was sundown through the windows of the abandoned shopping center. The quietness sweetened by the humming sound of Simon's antigravity boots as he glided in fluid motion over a heap of trash inside the building. He touches down and gracefully walks on the floor. Not too far behind him, the silence broken again by the racket of Jeanette riffling through the trash, trying to get over it, her heavy duty boots kicking up dust and trash everywhere she goes. Eventually she makes it and quickly catches up to the person she is drawn to but cautious enough to stay far out of his way as possible now he knows she's here, Jeanette still feels fortunate enough to be alive after he tried to kill her, too drawn to him like a stray dog.<p>

Simon knows she doesn't seem a credible threat to him, but she following him everywhere he goes made him feel annoyed, a distraction from his directive. Simon searched through the shopping center lobby as Jeanette watches him contently from the top of a flight of stairs. He suddenly looks at her over his shoulder, she jumps thinking he's gonna shoot her, ends up falling into rows of carts behind her. The situation becoming ridiculously humorous as she's trapped in a moving cart down a flight of stairs, screaming past Simon and into the shops front doors, she hit face first with the avalanche of carts pilling up on her, groaning in pain from hitting her face, a mountain of carts on her body. Jeanette is humiliated but at least she's alright.

Simon watched in amazement, knowing she's there for he can hear her footsteps from a mile away. In partial annoyance, he only shot a glance at the chipette, trying to make her flinch to shoo her off. It only ended her making a fool of herself by injuring herself. With a pile of a hundred shopping carts pinning her to the front door, a final cart bumps into the pile, making the sliding doors open as if it knew the irony of the situation, making the carts fall on top of her. He shakes his head in utter disbelief at the sight.

"Wow," is his only response as he tries to move on to the next area.

_A distraction indeed,_ he thinks to himself.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A cloudy, sandstorm free night fell upon the peaceful city. The bright blue lights from Simon's scanner lights up the dark of the dead city. Jeanette sat atop a giant spherical oil container, gazing lovingly at the chipmunk who still did what he been doing since he first arrived. He scanned a run-down fuel processing plant in the city center for any signs of what he looked for.

Simon reaches a flat area, not far from Jeanette's position. He knows she's there but doesn't bother with her, for after his first day on Earth with a close encounter, he decides to call it a night. He pulls out the cylinder that's his downsized cryonic pushes a button and drops the cylinder. Before hitting the ground, it expands into its former, full-sized pod instantly. From afar, Jeanette cringes at the futuristic device, if it was gonna explode in front of him. She wasn't the one for surprises. The pod opened up for him, and he lies down in it tiredly yawning, he briefly glimpses Jeanette eying him from the fuel tower before the pod closes, he dozes off into much needed sleep.

Seeing the opportunity to get another close look at him, she steps down carefully from the tower but fails miserably when she slips and fell head over heels. It was about twenty feet and a loud metallic crashing sound following her screams echoing through the plant as piles of trash seemed to cushion her fall. She hit something hard, new bruises formed on her head but is otherwise all right. She doesn't mind, she had far worse injuries before. She looks over the pile trash in front of the building where the chipmunk took shelter. She hasn't heard him. Well, it should be safe. Jeanette tiptoes over to the pod. It was made of a translucent metal, strangely no seam lines for it to fold-up.

_So how could it be one solid piece_? she thought as she circles it.

_It must be a form of nanotechnology allowing different pieces of matter to fuse or separate at the atomic level._ The glassy appearance all foggy white as she can see the sleeping Simon through the upper half of the container. She stares through the glassy barrier longingly at him. He looked so peaceful, so handsome. Jeanette presses her glasses and hands on the container, vexed by his image, the barrier blocking her view of him any further.

She hesitantly backs away, how was she going to communicate with him? Since she has been nearly killed by him a couple of times, she thinks she shouldn't introduce herself directly. Being near him was tense enough.

"What should I do?"

She taps her fingers together, looking around as if an answer lay around somewhere on the ground, which turns out to be. She spots something in the trash pile nearby, a toilet rim and broom together.

"Hmm," she looks at them thoughtfully and back at the chipmunk. They kind of look like him in a way with the broom's light brown bristles like his hair and the rim like his head.

"Aha!" Snapping her fingers, Jeanette begins riffling through trash, searching for whatever else she needs for an idea she formed. Luxor lays down on the ground nearby, watching her master pull out her tools, getting to work on her first real attempt to communicate with Simon. As Luxor eventually dozes off, Jeanette works through the night.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Come morning, Simon wakes up, seeming to have a peaceful rest. The pod opens up automatically as soon he was conscious. He gets out of the pod and it shrinks into pocket size, already to continue his mission...

"Huh?"

He stops at the sight of something before him. Some contraption resembling a work of art: a statue made of scrap metal, the arms and legs made of welded tubing spray-painted steel blue. There's a toilet rim with brown bristles of a broom taped on top of it as a head with two Christmas tree decoration balls dangling in the center, blue almost like his eyes. He realized it was a poor rendition of him. He is bewildered of how this 'thing' got here and what it even was suppose to be anyway.

"Weird," he says to no one in particular as he takes in the image of the thing. Still confused, he shrugs it off as he walks past it to her job.

Hiding behind a rack of pipelines, Jeanette's heart sinks as she watched him reject her masterpiece.

She slaved over getting that thing done before he awoke and to do it right. All the chipmunk seemed to show was unimposing feelings with it despite Jeanette spending all night in the dark until mere minutes before he woke, for nothing. She berates herself for not doing a better job, how could she? She never was much of an artist herself and had limited materials and time. He still didn't acknowledge her in any way and sitting here wasn't going to do her any good.

"Dammit," she silently cursed, slightly dejectedly kicking the pipes, only to start the day with bad luck when the hundred pounds steel pipes come rolling down on top of her, screeching in surprise as a pile of pipes pinned her down. Now her art worthless, pinned by pipes too heavy to get out from, and… that's twice she made a fool of herself in front of him.


	8. Courting

**DISCLAIMER**

**_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_** holds the rights to _The Chipettes_.

_The Chipmunks _are an American music group of singing anthropomorphic chipmunks owned and operated by **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr. _**and **_Janice Karman_** under **_Bagdasarian __Productions_**, formerly **_Bagdasarian Film Corporations_**.

* * *

><p>Simon heard those responses before from his holographic pad. Usually when sent on the yearly reconnaissance missions to various terrestrial planets to find any trace of life forms, from microbiological specimens to full sized plants to verify if the planet is capable of sustaining complex life but hasn't found ONE on <em>any<em> mission.

In his mind, he was basically sent on some getaways to new worlds for simple joy flights to get the feel of 'freedom' he imagined from this kind of work on top of making glorifying discoveries of life on alien worlds, all he had to do was have fun and look. Yet, the ease of searching for life for glory gave an empty promise to this job, having searched countless worlds across astronomical distances for even a tiny trace of life wasn't easy for a privileged cadet, only a certain few selected to explore outside of their own generation ships. Simon thought he could become famous by bringing back a microbe of a specimen and goof off if wished. He found no life, _at all, _throughout his line of work. His drive for fame to become the first person to find a habitable world full of lush, green life waned out by mission after mission with the same directive with the same result: no plants and nothing to do but fly around. After six days of searching here on Earth of all places, it gotten on his nerves, the mission appointed to Simon felt more like a 'down to earth' task as he called it.

Simon shook his head, closing the hood to a rusted pickup truck he scanned, continuing his search to enclosed spaces where living things are likely to be hiding from the harsh extremes in this environment. He tries not to react when he surprisingly gets another reading from inside a toilet booth.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative._"

At least they would have some microbiological development that would be enough to satisfy his scanner's evaluation relay and to end his inane search so he could go back home. He guessed wrong. Groaning in frustration, Simon closes the door to the port-a-potty, contemplating his thoughts.

Home didn't feel free either. He would usually return weeks later after traveling in cryogenic sleep, debrief useless information, and then end up spending all year training for the next mission in a cramped starship, it all felt dull and routine. After a while, he hated traveling onboard the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle in hibernation. Cryogenic sleep felt very uncomfortable to him, having to freeze and unfreeze hurt his skin and always getting confused too, having to wake up weeks later as if nothing happened and it interrupted his aging process. Despite the fact being only nineteen years old, he was technically younger by at least two years being chronically frozen for weeks at a time on several missions, slowing his age and prolonging his lifetime then getting back from missions only the worst part of a boring job. This directive something no one else wanted to do since no habitable planet ever discovered, but had to keep searching nonetheless. Simon would scout a planet surface once every five years instead of a group of scouts once a year, and they chose Earth, the least expectant of all impossibilities. The home planet long abandoned by his kind and humans for almost seven hundred years since the _Axiom_ and other Buy N' Large starships left with the population.

_So why search an already dead planet?_ Simon thought to himself, antagonized in his search of his next scanning. Even though he's never seen Earth, he didn't think he would since being born and growing up on the _Axiom_, Simon always dreamed of escaping the feverish cabin walls of the ship, having grown sick and tired of doing the same 'activities' as everyone else onboard that ship. Growing up, educated, and trained with his mindset onto the promises of timeless horizons of space looking for infinite worlds and skies to fly through, the ultimate freedom. Earth was so dead and pointless. Due to the fact Simon could only go where instructed, it made him think there isn't much freedom in anything. His prolonged life felt as if to be maroon in routine, no matter where he went.

His thoughts interrupted by yet another "_Identified: Specimen Negative_," after scanning inside a Buy N' Large replica of the Apollo capsule and slammed the hatch shut, failing to react not so angrily as he heard that negative chime.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative._"

All through the day, he got angrier and angrier by the minute at that sound after hundreds of readings. He finished what he thought would have productive results was in the cargo hold of an ancient Buy N' Large cargo ship in the late afternoon.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative!_"

_"_Aaaagh!"

Simon slams the cargo doors with all his might, screaming in frustration as he threw his holographic-pad over the railing and down to the dried up bedrock. His actions only fueled the fire as he stomped away off the ship to go find his holographic-pad and stop for the day, not noticing a metallic grating sound from behind him.

Before Simon registered a tugging sensation on him, the circular magnetic disk attached to a cargo crane yanked him off his feet and pulled to the disk, his whole body immobilized by the powerful magnetic field.

"What the hell?" he exclaims at what happened.

_Oh bother! How could I forget this suit's magnetized material made of nanofabricated ceramic gossamer . . . _He tries budging to no avail.

_Made for skintight protective suits in the harsh environments of any extraterrestrial landscape!_ Still infuriated, he fidgets violently and flings the disk around.

_Thin, comfortably smooth, and its own form of clothing almost indistinguishable from Egyptian cotton. _He activates his antigravity servomechanism, trying to fly away, maybe swinging with enough momentum to break free.

_It is still metallic regardless of its characteristic structure, _Simon adds on to his thought as he almost makes it, but the magnet is far too strong.

_What idiot puts magnetic crane up for lifting cargo but doesn't take it off?_ he thought, cursing all sorts of things in his mind.

After a few minutes of trying, Simon finally lost whatever patience he had left. He wrestles his hand for the plasma rifle strapped to his waist. He struggles as he pries it out of its harness, as it is also metallic. Save for he has the barrel aimed at the magnet set to low power, he closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.

The bolt of plasma melts through the magnet, releasing Simon as he stops from falling with his antigravity boots.

Finally free to release all his rage and anger from the day of not finding what he's looking for on the ship, Simon unloads discharge after discharge of ionized gas projectiles, screaming and cursing at the freighter, blasting full power at the hull, superstructure, and especially the crane, twice for good measure. One shot hits the petroleum tanks, instantly lighting the ship up in a ball of fire as he continues firing at the disintegrated ship in a blind rage. The raining debris of fireballs and his stray plasma blasts causes nearby ships to explode as well, Simon's anger lighting up the dead valley like Hiroshima.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette watches in terror and awe at the sight of the chipmunk turned explosive on those ships, while trying to avoid flying flaming debris from her cover at a safe distance from the ship and _from him_ in this state. In the week he has been here, she tried to get close as she can to him but hadn't recovered her confidence to get his attention after building that statue of him and it took her a while to pry herself free from those pipes, not wanting to go through that again. After seeing the chipmunk full-blown rage, made her scared to consider going over to him.

Now back on the ground after finally stopped shooting, the chipmunk's handsome face that showed murderous rage now blank from hopelessness. The chipmunk slumps over in defeat lost in thought, not taking any notice of the ships tilting over each other, creating a fiery domino effect. Jeanette notices he clenched his fists, hiding his face in his knees, wrapping his arms around his lower legs, saddened beyond measure, closed up on not finding a single specimen in an entire sector.

Concerned, Jeanette feels something tug inside her. She loved his gracious self, but she couldn't stand to see him so depressed. Jeanette wanted to go over to him and comfort him however way she could. Disturbing him would most likely worsen his god-awful mood and she would risk incineration by his own fury.

It wasn't until then Jeanette notices a shining blue screen along the burning debris in front of her. She picked it up, recognizing it as the chipmunk's holographic-pad. She saw him throw it almost in the direction of her hiding spot.

"Hmm," Jeanette looks between the holographic-pad in her hand then to the chipmunk, getting an idea that might actually work. She could return this to him and maybe he will at least thank her, maybe get an opportunity to talk to him. She would do anything for this chipmunk to say at least a few words to her. She looks back at the chipmunk and back to the holographic-pad in her hand, making a decision of running the risk of him killing her, but at least she would try to get close to him.

_It's now or forever be a coward,_ she thought as she composes herself with all her courage and slowly makes her way over to his side not without feeling a bit nervous.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon sat there unresponsive, face buried in his arms, exhausted from spending his anger and energy on the defenseless ship. His eyes threatened to water, Simon thought for a moment if he could have just put his energy into flying away, feeling free from directives and frustrating as hell readouts. Having already vented his willpower to even move, there wasn't much he could do to ease his pain. He felt for the first time true hatred for his job, cursing the planets he visited to having no life and cursed his superiors for selecting him for this meaningless safari. He wanted to block reality immediately, he won't respond to anything, wanting to go home and away from this hellhole. He wouldn't look forward to returning home either, wishing he could fly away from this life if he could...

Slow, careful footsteps to Simon's left caught his attention. His sonic detection automatically registered it as the annoying garbage chipette that kept following him around. He wanted to blast the irritating stalker on the spot, his plasma rifle next him, it's barrel still glowing red hot from firing continuously, its ion power cell fully drained and in need to recharge.

He heard another noise. The garbage collector sat no more than ten feet away from him, nervously shifted closer to him, tapping and fidgeting with her fingers as she whistled out of tune. Simon didn't bother with her, she seemed rather harmless to him.

Simon thought about the female chipmunk next to him. The way she kept following him and popping into his thoughts, something about her . . . He nearly killed her the first time they meet, he over-defensively presumed she was hostile, save for her innocent looks and curiosity the only thing present in her eyes. He remembers those eyes. The way she looked at him, she looked like a very lonely chipette, trailing him like a lost puppy. He also knew nothing could survive here as far as he could tell, being told all of the Buy N' Large cleanup settlements left on Earth died out long ago in six hundred, ninety five years of reconnaissance, the scouts sent from the _Axiom_ star liner never found a single survivor anywhere. How is it possible for this living, breathing worker to be here on Earth? Could she be the sole survivor of a long lost government on this planet?

Maybe she knows . . . even better, maybe she knows where to find what he's looking for, she the only thing in his search of Sector _NA-001_ he hasn't bothered with yet. He thought of more questions like who was she? Where did she come from? Why is she here? How did she survive this world? His blossoming curiosity about her snapped him out of his gloomy state.

Only four feet away, she sat in an awkward position, apparently wanting to speak. Finally! He can do something useful on this meaningless mission and satisfy his inquisitive mind.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

_You can do this,_ Jeanette repeats to herself, trying to overcome the growing nervousness in her stomach.

She is over a meter away from him, he probably knows she's there and hasn't had the ability to kill her for the time being. She is neither relieved nor panicked, still sitting next to him in awkward silence. The only sounds are the crackling flames from the burning hulks of the ships in front of them. She collects her composure, clearing her throat, ready to speak. She forgot what she was going to say, but she's going to say at least _something_ to him.

"So what's your story?" the chipmunk spoke, turning his head to face her.

"Ah!" She jumped at the sound of his voice and looking at her so suddenly, falling over on her back in surprise and closes her eyes, preparing him to blow her away.

The chipmunk calmly tried to reach out to Jeanette.

"It's alright, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

Jeanette had not expected that to happen. Jeanette realizes she was on her back and not dead. Jeanette sat up from the ground slowly and found herself in direct eye contact with the chipmunk for the first time since he arrived. Only this time, Jeanette didn't stare down the barrel of a plasma gun nor into the eyes of a trained killer. She glanced at a sincere chipmunk with no intention to harm her at all. He looked at her waiting for an answer, his blue gray eyes continued to stun her.

"You're very jittery aren't you?" His voice soothing and friendly, he seemed amused by her anxiety at the slightest of his actions. It finally hits her.

_He's talking to me!_

"What's your directive?" he asks.

"Vorn e Dzer direktivy?" he asks in a foreign language.

Still nervous, she tries to say something.

"Uuuh...Huh?" was her only intelligible response.

Simon blinks at her.

"You're a garbage collector, yes?" he asks her again with his sweet voice.

"Oh!" she realizes what he was saying.

"Um…uh…y-yes, yes I-I am," she stutters but not as nervous about him. Jeanette's voice sounded rough and dry, she hasn't used it for a full sentence in a very long time. Jeanette notices a pile of trash nearby, maybe she could impress him. She eagerly whips out her shovel and proudly scoops it all into a broken compactor nearby as swiftly as she could. The compactor grinds painfully as the rusted away gears try compressing the trash. At last, it spits out a cube, only for it to fall apart.

"Uuh….Tada!" she nervously triumphs over the sloppy cube.

"Oh." Simon looks at the fallen apart cube in mild amazement as if he never saw the act of compacting garbage before.

"What's your də**·**'rek-" Jeanette tries to speak, knowing the ice is somewhat broken.

"My directive?" he points to himself, which Jeanette nods.

"That's classified," he coldly says looking away, neither short nor cutting in his answer.

"Oh…sorry," she replies in defeat, mentally cursing himself.

Suddenly she remembered the holographic-pad he threw away. Jeanette quickly pulls it out of her pocket and hands it to him.

Simon looks at his holographic-pad in her hand, remembered chucking it over the railing because it drove him to madness, destroying a ship for not finding what he was after. He hates having to do that again or be reminded of it but she didn't know better.

"Oh." He takes it from her gloved hand, and examines it, it wasn't damaged and it's built tough for a frustrating job. At least he won't have to go look for it or replace it.

"Thank you, um-uh, what's your name?" he asks.

"My name?" she repeats.

"Yes," he looks at her for an answer.

She's never said her given name before or for as long as she could remember, speaking to anything or anyone in particular to share her name. She remembered it, it's even written on her uniform for that matter but hasn't said it for almost…forever. It's hard for her to say it.

"Uuuh…uhh." It's _really_ hard for her to say it.

"J…Jə," she takes her time.

"Jə...Jə-Jə·NET!" she finally manages to speak it.

"Jeanette?" the chipmunk repeats it perfectly with his harmonious voice.

Jeanette's heart went warm the way he spoke her name. She coos at the beautiful sound of his voice that rolls off his tongue as he says it again.

"Jeanette," he lightly chuckles.

"That's a nice name," he smiles at her. She gazes lovingly at him.

"My name is Simon," he replies, pointing to his name patched on his arm under a single gold bar for the rank of second lieutenant and a green plant patch with Buy N' Large Navy - _Axiom_ E.V.R.E.embedded in it.

His name the most wonderful word Jeanette ever heard.

"S'man." She tries to pronounce it but isn't very good with phonetics either.

She tries again.

"S'man," she fails once more.

"No it's like this: Sie**·**mən," he says his name slower.

Jeanette put all her efforts into pronouncing it right, only to worsen her speech impediment.

"SIM**·**inz. . ."

That slow stuttering sound made Simon uncontrollably chuckle, she's trying so hard to get it right and his pronouncing his name with a vibrating effect of a "z" sounded too cute. It made her look so adorable!

Jeanette is entranced at the sound of his laugh, his voice like music to her ears. She loved making him laugh so she says his name again.

"Simmons."

He collects himself after a few seconds.

"You're funny. But Simmons sounds good to me," he says with a smile on his face, making her more drawn to him, now she's up close, personal and on friendly ground with the first being she has spoken to for who knows how long.

The wind picked up, the atmosphere around them getting cold, the sand at their feet blew with the wind and the recognizable sound of howling draws Jeanette's attention away from Simon. Since the wind blew from behind Simon, she looks past him, and sure enough, a column of dust and sand headed their way fast.

"Oh no," she says half-panicking, her truck about a kilometer away and judging from the wind's speed and distance of the wall of sand, they had less than a minute before it hits.

"Simmons! We need to go!" Alerted, she moves to grab him and run.

"Whoa, don't touch me!" Simon warns, drawing his plasma rifle on her. Jeanette stops dead in her tracks but he doesn't know what's happening.

"Simmons look! There's a storm coming!"

Before he could turn around, the winds hit full force, leaving Simon dumbstruck of what happened. The sand now picking up and obscuring his vision, even his HUD is unable to shield his face. The gale force winds even extinguished the fires of the burning ships. Simon now disoriented in the blast of air and dirt all around him, difficult to not blown over. Suddenly he remembers Jeanette standing near him, only to disappear in the cloud of dust as the storm hit.

"JEANETTE! JEANETTE! WHERE ARE YOU?" he calls out to her, no response. It's so loud and visibility is zero. He panics, not finding any shelter, the only person who knows what to do is gone and he won't survive in this for long.

Suddenly he feels a rough, feminine gloved hand grasp his own for dear life. Simon may not see Jeanette but knows she's there.

"SIMMONS!" Jeanette screams to him over the blasting winds, she's still there, and he's going to live. Her silhouette appears in the cloud of dust.

"DON'T LET GO! FOLLOW ME!" Jeanette calls out to him, placing her ultraviolet goggles on her face, guiding both to the only secured place.

* * *

><p>The foreign language spoken by Simon is Italian.<br>Since there isn't any information about where _**Janice Karman**_'s decedents came from or any of her ethnicity, unlike both **_Ross Bagdasarians'_**, I decided to based off the second language spoken in Australia. For those who don't know, Australia is where _The Chipettes_ came from as hinted by _Eleanor_ in the second episode called "The Chipettes." It is fully confirmed where they are from in episode fifteen of season three in Alvin and the Chipmunk.  
>Since English is the most spoken language in Australia and this is an English story (I live somewhere in the southern part of the United States), I went with the second most spoken language in The Land Down Under.<p>

For those who are curious, the vertically centered dot (** ·** ) placed in between the enunciated words ("SIM**·**inz," "jə·NET," "də**·**'rek-" and "Sie**·**mən") is called an interpunct_, _which is used for interword separation in ancient Latin script.


	9. One's trash is another's treasure

Well, it's official this story has thirty-one more hits than SIM·N under the "Legacy Story Stats," two hundred more hits and ninety-two visits under "Story Stats" and for the reviews . . . well there's twenty-three more reviews under SIM·N than here.

**trex841: **According to Wikipedia . . .

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

Originally voiced by **_June Foray_** in the 1985 animated special produced by **_Bagdasarian Productions _**in association with **_Ruby-Spears Enterprise _****_"_**A Chipmunk Reunion," _Vinny_ is Alvin's, Simon's, and Theodore's birth mother from the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series who later appeared in an sixth season episode "Vinny's Visit," only to be voiced by **_Janice Karman_**.

* * *

><p>The door opens as fast as it could, the sudden rush of sand and wind blasting inside shatters the dead silence of the truck's dark interior.<p>

"IN HERE!"

Jeanette leads Simon inside, shielding him with her body. It was difficult to find the truck but thankfully, Jeanette remembered her bearings before the storm hit. Walking in one hundred, fifty kilometer-per-hour winds slow as a crawl, any further than a kilometer away, they'd be dead and buried for sure.

The door closes and all is calm again. They are safe. The settling dust causes Simon to sneeze and cough up sand in his mouth.

"Are you alright?" Jeanette asks, worried. Even though she's used to the harsh air, he wasn't.

"Yea-" a sneeze escapes him.

"-yes, thank you," he manages to say, little shaken.

He notices the darkness inside the truck.

"Where are we?" he asks, unable to see, even Jeanette.

"Hold on, let me get some light." She scuffles through the darkness, managing to reach the stack of batteries to the Christmas lights. She clamps in the cables and the truck flickers to life with every color of light.

Simon is amazed at the sight, the most stuffed space of random ancient objects he's ever seen. Racks upon racks of unique appliances, tools, toys, items, oddities, knickknacks, anything. The Christmas lights gave the interior of the stuffed truck a glow of invitation and enchantment. He slowly glides down the aisle of the truck, completely awestruck.

"Is this, your…living quarters?" Simon asks, carefully choosing his words.

"This is my home," she proudly says, spreading her arms out to give a welcoming pose. Simon notices Jeanette's make shift room, a sheet tied to metal poles, the playable ancient TV still and Luxor's sleeping pad. He takes in the entire image of the trucks interior.

He looks at her for a second, wondering how could a person live in such a humble place and survive the hostile conditions of Earth. Compared to the living standards of his home, this 'home' is utterly nothing.

He changes the subject, trying not to think of low her life compared to his. Instead, he quelled his curiosity of the truck's treasures.

"So...where did you get all of these things?"

"I found all of these in the garbage and collected them." The way she displays the forgotten treasures of humanity, seems like it's the whole world in here.

"It's incredible," he says, scrutinizing every one of them but jumps at the sound of what appears to be a singing fish on the wall.

"WHOA!" He draws his gun as if to shoot it.

Alerted, Jeanette rushes to him, not wanting any of her treasures destroyed.

"Simmons, Simmons, it's alright, it's just a fish."

He isn't listening now that the singing fish is also moving! Its tail and head flapping side to side, he takes aim.

"Ah! Simmons! No, no, no. It's ok, it's ok. It's not going to hurt you," she calmly reassures him, trying to get him to lower his weapon. He looks at her and back toward the fish in nervousness, giving in as he holsters his plasma rifle.

"Oh, good," Jeanette sighs in relief as she becomes all jittery and excited.

"There's so much I want to show you!" she says with a smile on her face, riffling through the racks to find interesting things to share.

"Here," she shows him an eggbeater, but since this technology is hundreds of years old, neither of them have a clue what it is.

Simon takes it as Jeanette goes searching for more things. He gets very curious with the eggbeater, twisting its knob faster, faster, faster, and fast—the beaters fly off, he revved it too fast. He gasps sharply as one of her treasures came apart.

Jeanette heard the clanking sounds.

"What was that?"

"Um, uh, nothing. Nothing at all," he quickly prevaricated, hiding the eggbeater.

Jeanette finds a sheet of pliable, transparent plastic material with regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres.

"Lookie here!" she pops one of the bubbles. Taken aback, it looks fun and addicting to him.

"You try," she happily offers it to him which he takes it and sure enough likes it when he popped a bubble. He chuckles as he popped all the bubbles as fast as he could.

Jeanette hands him a glass bulb connected to a screw pitched base. He takes it and as soon as it touched his fingers, it shone brightly.

"What the?" Jeanette takes the light from him, tapping it if broken before handing it back to Simon, maybe she imagined things. Nope, it lit up again.

"How'd you do that?" she asks amazed he could bring light to anything dead.

"I don't know," he replies, drawn to the light as well. Unbeknownst to them, his suit's nano-circuitry could transfer energy to anything electrical it touches.

Jeanette shrugs it off as she finds an unsolved Rubik's cube that he takes with utmost curiosity.

"Aha, I know!" she says, knowing something to interest her.

Ecstatic, she rushes over to the VCR, pulls out Hello Dolly and rushes back to Simon, who finished solving the Rubik's cube in the three seconds she took to get the movie.

"Oh," she utters in amazement, he's smart and he's fast. She looks at the cube, unconsciously handing Simon the tape and stares at the cube, not knowing what it was for.

"Oops," Simon's words brought Jeanette's attention back to him. She saw Simon's worried expression looking at the unspooled contents from a cassette in his hands.

"Ah! My tape!" she panics, grabbing it from him, trying to think of how to fix it.

"Oh, I-I'm so sorry!" Simon tries apologizing. Quickly and clumsily, Jeanette's mechanical arm exposes a kind of flathead power tool that rewinds the tape, worried if it would work. She whips around and slides it into the VCR, turning on the TV. The static made her feel uneasy for her most prized possession.

Finally, the screen flickers on, the picture displays and sound activates. Jeanette cheers in relief to the tunes playing, the scene of the actors dancing to '_Put On Your__ Sunday Clothes_.'

Simon stands next to Jeanette, relieved the problem he made solved. He stares at the TV and to her.

"It's looks fascinating," he watches the scene and listens to the movie with great interest. He records the scenes of the actors dancing with his tiny camcorder mounted on his earpiece.

"Very fascinating," he says to himself as he steps closer, examining the movie like a scientist examining a specimen.

"Oh I know!" Jeanette jumps in excitement as she reaches the back of her truck, searching for something she found earlier: the metal lid. She finds it just where she left it and turns to Simon.

Jeanette greeted Simon by her dancing and humming along the tunes, with a trash lid as a hat, how appropriate.

_"...Put on your Sunday clothes there's lots of world out there…!"_

She dances poorly if for the first time but Simon can't contain himself as he chuckles loudly. She's too cute for him when she does that.

"Now you try," she politely asks, spinning to a stop from her last move.

Simon is baffled, he never danced before either except for in the sky but he tries anyway.

"Okay," thinking it to be challenging, he uses his enhanced abilities for his movements.

Too much speed and strength combined. Jeanette tries to stay calm and polite, stepping back from his frantic dancing form. He mimics her last dance move, spinning like helicopter propellers.

"Okay stop, stop! STO-" He strikes her in the face and sends her flying into the metal wall.

Simon stops gracefully, not fazed or dizzy at all. He notices Jeanette isn't present, how can she disappear in a truck?

"Jeanette?" he asks in confusion.

He looks on the ground and against the wall where Jeanette groaned from the impact of such force, like being hit by a car and putting a sizable dent in the aluminum wall.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Simon gasps.

"I got carried away, are you okay?"

She seemed unharmed but a lens from her glasses broke and she sustained a black eye. Concerned, Simon tries to help her up.

"I can fix that for you."

"Oh no, no, no, no, I-I am okay. I have spares," she says, getting up but trips over some of her stuff on the floor, somewhat nearsighted without her glasses.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Simon asks, watching her feel the shelves, but kept tripping and bumping her head into things.

"Oh yes I am okay, I know wher-" CLANK!

"OW!" Jeanette hits her head against the top shelf but manages to finish her sentence.

"I know where to find my glasses." Jeanette finds her way to the shelf of personal items of new glasses, replacement prosthesis, pacemaker batteries and so forth.

"Aha! Problem solved," she says triumphantly, holding up a new pair of glasses.

"Oh, good," Simon is relieved he didn't seriously injured her which Jeanette taken aback that Simon is now more caring to her. He focuses his eyes around to find something new.

Simon finds Jeanette's lighter collection, something new to him indeed. He picks one up, carefully studying its appearance, wasn't it used for something?

"I have no idea what those are," Jeanette said as Simon sat down not too far from her.

"I just collected all of the ones I could find though."

He pulls on one side and it clicks open. Curiously, he presses a button and a tiny little flame sparks to life, captivating Jeanette and Simon.

As they stare into the flame, Jeanette felt the warmth emitting from Simon's skin, realizing this is the closest she has been to him. She looks at him, still oblivious to their intimate position, staring at the flame.

Jeanette took in the image of Simon, the light emitting from the Christmas lights and from the tiny flame glowing on his figure but saw the warmer glow of his handsome face, her infatuation for him grew. She tilted her head to one side, her mind lost in the magnificence of his vivid blue gray eyes, staring into them as if into his soul. So beautiful it almost hurt to look. She hears familiar tunes playing in the background, the soft ballad of '_It Only Takes_ _A Moment_' made it feel she stared at the night sky that day before he arrived, its timeless dark horizon twinkled of constellations so mystifying and captivating, beheld the most mysterious things of life beyond mortal grasp. Jeanette felt Simon was a god sent from the stars, her silent prayer for finding love right in front of her.

She remembered the song playing in the background, the man and woman kissing and holding hands, proclaiming their affection for one another only took a moment to fall in love. Jeanette finally understood what the lyrics meant and she knew what to do.

Her eyes lowered from his eyes, down his arm and to his fingerless gloved left hand lying limp on the sheet they sat on, mere centimeters from her prosthetic right hand. Jeanette gulped. It seemed so simple in the movie to hold the man's hand, telling him everything you wanted to tell.

_But what if he rejects me? Worse, decides to shoot me?_ Easier said than done, Jeanette tried to build up courage within herself to make her move, sweating. They were still in awkward silence, Simon distracted by the flame. Over the intimate situation and setting, she decides to take his hand immediately.

She slowly raises her right hand, her entire body shaking and his mechanical arm made a faint clattering sound as her prosthetic's neural processor registered spiking stimulus patterns of stress in her brain, enacting the proper effects of anxiety like the shakes. She mentally cursed her replacement arm for having such a give away to her shyness, it wasn't that far to his hand, but mere centimeters felt like kilometers.

She opens her fingers.

_Ok, that's a good first step,_ she reaches down…slowly.

She closed his eyes, preparing for the worst . . . if she is rejected and he decides to blast her to bits on the spot.

She hoped for the best that he somehow loved her back. She pictures in her mind of them being locked in a passionate embrace, singing to the orchestra of '_It Only Takes A Moment_' and the happiest of endings, her dream come true. The thought finally brings out the bravery in her to touch the skin of his fingers…

Simon turns his head to Jeanette, eyeing her questioningly and suspiciously when he sees her reach for his hand with her eyes closed.

"What are you doing?"

She pulls her hand back in reflex, half-choking/yelping, thinking she was caught or she touched his hand and was about to die.

"Ah! Oh um-uuuuh, uuh, n-n-n-nothing, noth-thing at all! Yeah that's it! Doing nothing at all!" she denies half stuttering out of impulse and fear, confidence and fantasies shattered into a trillion pieces. She sheepishly fidgets as if trying to convince him she was doing something akin to nothing.

Simon looks at her as if she's the most bizarre creature he's ever seen, oblivious of what Jeanette tried to relay to him.

"Uuuh Oooo-kay," he says to her in unease.

"Oooh!" Simon is drawn to the TV where '_It Only Takes__ A Moment_' played, preventing him from pondering about Jeanette's strange behavior.

Jeanette mentally kicked herself for cowering from her only chance to connect with Simon. She noticed Simon became very interested in the movie as well. She sat there in thought trying to come up with something to reel him to her. He was interested in the things she showed him, so what hasn't she shown him yet? She's shown him pretty much everything of her life on Earth in just minutes, there wasn't much lively to look at.

_Wait, lively! THAT'S IT! THE PLANT!_ Suddenly remembering the garden plant she found earlier, the only thing he hasn't seen and it's something she's never seen before either.

"Simmons! I just remembered!" Simon draws his attention from scanning the scene on the TV.

"I found something a few days ago and I want to show you!"

She rushes over to the shelves but since the whole truck had something in every one of the hundreds of shelves, she can't remember exactly where it was.

"Uh, one second," she says as she frantically continues searching through the shelves, causing such a racket that a drum came down on her head.

"Ow!" Looking up in the direction of where the drum fell, she fumbles back on the drum as she loses her balance.

Simon silently chuckles at her as she searched around her home. She is, indeed, adorably funny in his eyes, very cute even, especially for someone like her who survived here. Simon looks at the lighter in his hand and back at the closing scene of '_It Only Takes A Moment_.'

He thinks of how someone like her could see something so special in things humans and anthropomorphic beings once greedily took for granted or if it were a dumb invention. To Jeanette, she saw things far more than they were in all her treasures. There was something about Jeanette that made him more curious and drawn to her, wondering if the things he felt were of what, attraction? How? She is far below him in status, not to mention she does not have much of an attractive female physical appearance according to male terms.

He is a naval vegetation scout for the Buy n' Large interstellar fleet and she is a custodian for a government that no longer exists. How could such unlikely people create such a connection among them?

Simon flicks the lighter on again, the tiny flame coming to life, reminding him of the things he remembered as beautiful. The warmth of being loved or loving someone, like the way his mother Vinny cared for him when young. Then he remembered the beauty of the stars seen from the _Axiom_. He loved them as much as he loved to fly, the greatest things that brought him warmth but didn't know why. It wasn't just for the sense of freedom for freedom is a perspective. What he loved is it's just cause, because he wanted to. He compared it to a possibility he thought of if he and her were somehow connected

_Could they be attracted if they wanted to?_ he thought. Maybe there was more to it than just social or status common ground. The way she looked at him, at the times he caught her staring at him as if it is the greatest thing ever.

_Maybe, she sees something in me that no one else could. But what exactly?_

Jeanette tapped his shoulder, breaking his train of thought.

He turns around to see her standing before him holding an old shoe. Something green inside the shoe got his attention.

"Oh!" he exclaimed with great interest. He looks at the green object in scrutiny.

_Wait a minute!_ His practiced eyes realize the familiar green looking object.

He pulls out his holographic pad and scans the object. Three pings and then, a pause as it processed what it looked at.

"_Identified: Specimen POSITIVE - Ailanthus altissimo sprout - Biologically functioning_."

It pinged with a confirming sound. Simon's eyes shot wide open, his mind unable to process what he looked at is a real photosynthesizing plant!

"_Specimen Confirmed Positive, Directive A1-01: Recon & Simmonsluate Positive Biological Lifeforms - Accomplished, Initiate - Directive A1-02: Return To Axiom Superior!_"

At that moment, his mind unable to process for an automated program took over, his neural implants possessing his mind and body.

He starts to convulse violently, an inhuman automated sound coming from Simon. Jeanette is caught by surprise and fear, she steps back scared as if he's going to blow up. In her mind, she is scared beyond measure for him.

_WHAT DID I DO?_ She panics in her mind, her feet locked in fear of what's going to happen next.

It happened instantly. A brainwashed Simon yanks the plant out of Jeanette's hands and places it in the special biological specimen container strapped to his belt before yanking out his downsized cryogenic pod. It automatically sizes up around him in the event these things happen and cryogenic ice suddenly encases Simon. The cryogenic pod's seams seal shut with a solid click, never to open for anything or anyone, dropping to the ground with a thud.

Only a steady pulsating green light with a leaf planted over it emits from the pod.

"Whoa," was Jeanette's only reaction to what happened.

She steps over to the pod and sees Simon in suspended animation inside, frozen in his blank, catatonic pose, his eyes closed and his hand clutching the plant container for dear life. He looked clinically dead in the pod, just like when he first came here.

"Simmons?"

Jeanette taps the pod as if to somehow get his attention, receiving no response. She leans against the pod to hear for any signs of activity within it. Besides the pulsating green light, nothing.

"Simmons?" she panics, shaking the pod to awake him. Nothing happens.

"S-S-SIMMONS!" Her cries for the now frozen and unresponsive Simon echoed through the truck, through the storm and through the night as she tries getting an answer.


	10. Rain Drops Keep Fallin'

**trex841**: Bingo

**DISCLAIMER**

_**Bagdasarian Productions **_owns the rights to_ The Chipettes_.

Formally **_Bagdasarian Film Corporations_**, **_Bagdasarian_ Productions** owns the rights to _The Chipmunks_.

* * *

><p><strong>DISCLAIMER<strong>

_The Chipettes _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

Originally voiced by **_June Foray_** in the 1985 animated special produced by **_Bagdasarian Productions _**in association with **_Ruby-Spears Enterprise _****_"_**A Chipmunk Reunion," _Vinny_ is Alvin's, Simon's, and Theodore's birth mother from the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series who later appeared in an sixth season episode "Vinny's Visit," only to be voiced by **_Janice Karman_**.

Come morning, twilight crept over the eastern horizon, the sandstorm calmed down overnight but Jeanette hasn't. Wide-awake and worry sick since Simon put himself into hibernation, thoughts of him being hurt or she did something wrong that made him shut himself off from her ran through her mind. Since then she tried arousing him to no avail. Jeanette still tries, not willing to give up on her only friend despite the fact Simon was chronically frozen in place and clinically dead, unresponsive to Jeanette's cries.

She sat there staring at his pod in the truck for hours after countless attempts of pounding on it to awake him. She kept thinking of how to get him out, to bring him out of the freezing shell and back to life. She did not know how though…

"Aha!" She snaps her fingers.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The sun now above the horizon, Jeanette moved, or better yet, labored Simon's cryogenic tube outside, to where she would get her pacemaker recharged at the same time. His pod, though not bulky, but very heavy around three hundred fifty pounds because of the density of the great cytogenetic residual ice inside the pod combined with the density of Simon's frozen solid body. It took her an hour or two of pushing the pod out of the truck, down the ramp and into the sunlight. Manual laboring didn't help Jeanette take her mind off Simon but she at least got him in the sun's warm rays in the expectation for him to awake.

All she could do was wait and see if the sun could melt through the pod's -100̊° C chassis. She stood by his side on the bridge, staring at the frozen figure of Simon, waiting for the ice to thaw out and let him go so she could see him warm open eyes and hear his voice again.

She lets those happy results run through her head as she waits patiently….

…And waits… …and waits… …and waits…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

By now, the heat of midday's sun beats down on the surface as hot as it will irradiate, almost unbearable, even for Jeanette. Though she grew up here, it's the hottest summer on Earth she's ever experienced. She sat down on the sizzling concrete of the broken bridge. Her work suit and fur soaked with sweat and her mouth crisp dry from dehydration. Jeanette doesn't care for she's more concerned on Simon waking up any moment now, the same thought that's been running through her for the past few hours.

She looks back up at the pod where the frozen Simon laid since this morning. Air temperatures hit 50˚C or 122̊°F outside and not a single drop of condensation dripped from his pod. Jeanette drops her head down in disappointment, nothing, after hours of waiting, has happened.

_Patience,_ she told herself, reassured he would eventually thaw.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

It's almost sundown, Jeanette only slightly bored and Simon is where he was at, motionlessly frozen in his pod where she put it, its green light still pulsating. She fiddles around with her tools on the sizzling ground, wondering if she could work her way through the pod to release him. Sorting through what she could use, she hears rumbling sounds in the distance.

She looks up to see darkness spread across the horizon. It wasn't a sandstorm, for the air did not kick up dust. These columns of clouds all dark gray and towered high in the sky, flashes of light visible in the blackness where the soft earthshaking sounds came from.

"Uh oh," she realizes it's a storm.

Seems it will be over them by nightfall, which is not long. Though not as powerful or deadly as a thunderstorm, it is still serious to find shelter because of flooding and lightning, witnessing some of her comrades suffer those fates, nowhere to hide from Mother Nature and died in the rain.

Jeanette had no idea how durable Simon's pod against the weather but just because it's hi-tech doesn't mean it can last out here. She won't have time to move Simon back into the truck, his pod too heavy to move and because of the slope of the ramp, it might fall on her if she tries to move it up. Worse, she might hurt Simon inside it.

Jeanette remembers having a single ancient canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight in the truck.

Considering the situation, she could use it to protect Simon herself. It's very rare for a storm to pass by these times, mostly in dry heat or cold. Jeanette has forgotten what it felt like for rain to pour on her skin and she never bathed as much as she could remembered, not enough clean water to do so if there were any. The rain could be good since being out in the heat all day and felt like she could use a small bathing in the rain…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Later that night, Jeanette's sleep-deprived eyes shot wide open in total shock as another lightning bolt stuck and missed her by a few meters, frying the ground it touched. The ungodly sound of electricity crashing down is painfully deafening to her ears. It's the tenth time in the night she was almost electrocuted, but she kept her spot next to Simon's pod, holding an umbrella over it as she stood in the downpour.

The rain came down hard in every direction carried by the wind. Jeanette doesn't mind shivering in the frozen rain, being drenched right through her attire from head to toe. Although she regrets underestimating the terrible conditions of the storm, she'd given her other arm for some heat. The temperature dropped rapidly and had only then realized she had to stay awake and hold an umbrella over Simon's pod until the rain stopped, her arms outstretched for holding it all night. Jeanette didn't know how to find a way to get it back into the truck or to a safer place.

All she knows is that it will be dawn in a couple of hours and the storm will be gone by then.

Just as she finished that though, Jeannette screamed and jumped in surprise as the eleventh near-miss lightning bolt struck the streetlight next to her.

_IF we make it to dawn,_ thought Jeanette as she looked in terror at the molten metal of the struck light post.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The rain had passed but the cold has not a few hours later.

A dark overcast hung over Sector NA-001, preventing sunlight from warming the surface that morning, it's now below freezing.

_Why of all times of the year for weather on this planet to go from extreme to extreme?_ Jeanette wondered to herself, shivering in the freezing air.

Since the Earth's protective atmosphere long been chemically tainted and eaten away, the climates became volatile to temperature changes from very hot to very cold if there was sunlight or not over non-clouded or darkened regions of Earth.

It's getting way too cold now, Jeanette's teeth sore from uncontrollable shivering, clothes wet from the downpour but she has no other forms of clothing to change into or dry off in. Standing out in the windy open air, the wet clothing stung her skin like needles, adding more misery on top of sleep deprivation, shell shock and a common cold she got in the storm. She was thankfully astonished she made it through thirty-three lightning bolts that came within a few feet of her, almost frying her on the spot and she hasn't succumbed to hypothermia from the freezing rain.

Jeanette looks at the source of her misery and endurance, the hibernating form of Simon. He was all right, far as she could tell. No water droplets or electric bolts have touched his pod. She stood by his side all night, with an umbrella in her biologic hand because of the lightning. Besides the annotation of her mechanical arm is a huge metallic attraction for electricity, Jeanette wonders why she hasn't succumbed to exhaustion from keeping her prosthetic arm holding an umbrella for hours.

His pod hadn't changed since going into slumber, no more or less frozen.

_But must be kept safe regardless, _she thought to herself_._

She went back into the truck and came back out with her blanket.

Sure Simon is cryogenically frozen but Jeanette couldn't be sure. His pod hollow and not very thick, he probably felt what happened outside hence cryogenic pod preserves him from aging, not from external harm.

Jeanette drapes the blanket around his pod, shielding him from the dropping temperature, imagining what it would be like to embrace him if he wasn't frozen, to shield him from the cold and feel the warm of his presence in her arms, protecting and letting Simon know how much she really cares for him.

Oh did she want him so bad.

She finishes tying up the blanket ends, satisfied she is willing to look after his well-being. The rush of the wind against her damp attire reminded her of her own, shivering again. She doesn't have anything else to spare to keep herself warm but even if she did, she would be more than content to give it to Simon.

HShe was safe and it was all that mattered to her.

She stares at Simon as she sits in front of his pod, curled up on the ground, holding her firmly woven cotton of her hammock around her torso with her arms trying not to freeze. She imagined Simon holding her and not herself to stay warm. She will stay there until he wakes up, no matter how long it took until then. Jeanette turns to her only sources of warmth: her bundled up hammock wrapped around her body facing away from the wind and Simon in her thoughts.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The winds kicked up the following day, a sandstorm coming by nightfall. Jeanette anticipated a storm would happen but won't be able to move Simon's pod in time, thus having to find a way to protect him and survive from a storm out in the open.

All she could do was cover his pod with anything to protect him from the sand. He still had her blanket so she added a trashcan over the top, container boxes concealed the sides and she weighed everything down to be sure he was anchored. She just used the fabric of her hammock to cover herself up since she can't fit in the shelter she made for him.

She stayed out there to be sure he wasn't blown away or hit by flying debris.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Seventeen hours of watching through the darkened clouds of sand and powerful gusts later, the sandstorm ended.

Sand covered the bridge and the winds seemed to blow hard still but the dust has settled.

Something stirs in one of the dunes of sand. Jeanette digs herself out, getting much sand out of her hair and off her clothes, completely unfazed by the idea of surviving premature burial as she has done for hundreds of times, unlike her fellow workers. Jeanette immediately checks up on the most important thing.

She digs out the trash can/boxed up cocoon out of the sand and there he was, right where she left him. Jeanette seems satisfied when no sand seeped into the pod. Despite having sand in her mouth, hair and attire, Simon is still safe.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Two days later, Jeanette still anticipates for Simon to wake, however her patience being put to the test. After putting much thought on it, Jeanette came up with another way to help Simon wake up by trying to unfreeze him. Remembering he froze when the pod encased him, she will have to reverse what it did by deactivating the pod. Though she knew absolutely nothing about the inner workings of a cryogenic pod, she is willing to give it her best shot. She examines Simon's pod for any access point.

The surface a flawless transparent metallic cylinder with no power source, internal lines, systems, or controls, the pod just a symmetrically designed tube. Jeanette had to admit it's very interesting technology, save for she mentally cursed it for keeping her from Simon.

All there is to access the pod is the pulsating beacon, the outlines of an opening can be seen.

_Hmm, it'll have to do, _Jeanette thinks to herself as she grabs a crowbar and pries it open.

Inside is a battery cell, a circular disc with a green light flashing on and off for the beacon, frosted dry ice lines linked with it.

_This must be the pod's cryogenic supply keeping him frozen in place._ She pulls out her pacemaker's charge cable from her belt.

_My best chance would be to short-circuit the pod._ She links the cable to her artificial pacemaker.

_Its alternator unit should provide enough charge to deactivate the device_ . . . She contemplates her thoughts for a moment before continuing, thinking of finally getting to awaken Simon.

She thinks what to say to him, how he will react. Will he chew her out for awakening him? Will he kill her? On the other hand, will he embrace her for saving him from becoming frozen for no reason? The last thought caught her attention, maybe he was unintentionally frozen and unfreezing him seemed like having being so grateful and he will thank her with hugs and kisses, happily ever after. That warmed Jeanette's mind, giving her the motivation to go ahead and see what happens.

ZAP!

Jeanette is instantaneously confused on the ground a yard away, her entire body especially her chest jerked, stinging like hell and smelled of smoke.

_What the hell just happened?_

She looked up, her questions answered along with her idea and fantasies backfiring. The pod's automated defenses knocked Jeanette off her feet by electrocuting her. A hundred volts being too much to overpower her pacemaker, it's a wonder it wasn't fried, otherwise her heart wouldn't beat properly and die of both cardiac arrest and electric shock.

_Let's not do that again._ She sighs in relief, slightly disappointed.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Later that afternoon, the sounds of creaking wheels filled the streets of the polluted city as a figure tugs on a cylindrical object.

Jeanette pulls Simon's pod, standing vertically on an ancient red wagon wrapped up in Christmas lights, all shining but not plugged into any power source.

Jeanette decided on one last way of somehow getting Simon or his pod to let him awake by persuasion. After some serious thinking, while remembering scenes from Hello Dolly, Jeanette learned the man takes the woman on a special social engagement, which involved taking the woman out to certain places in the city when he wishes to convey his romantic emotions to the woman. However, in this process, it's reversed.

_What are those called again?_ she wondered_. _

_A deep? Dent? Dat? D-Date? Yeah that's it, a date!_ She decided to take Simon out on a date to wake him up and let him know how she feels about him! It'll be a challenge since he's still in his pod but she's too determined.

Jeanette managed on sliding his pod onto a wagon from a ramp she made after taking a while figuring out how to pull it off. After an hour or two of laboring, he was on the wagon, the wagon buckling while trying to support the pod's weight.

Jeanette also remembered it being customary for the couple to express how they felt around each other by certain things they held important or at least to one of them. She draped some Christmas lights over his pod, shining as soon as they touched. She wished to show him he brought light to long dead objects like the light bulb he lit up. All the colors imaginable on his handsome form best fitted on how she wanted to express him in her mind.

She went about treating Simon for a date, following the way the movie showed her, almost exactly to the lines used and the activities they done.

From a nice brisk walk down the streets to rowing down the sludge river after laboring his pod into a raft, to an improvised fancy dinner with a picnic blanket she found, draped atop a crate with the lighters used as candles. She even had her canned survival food prepped from her truck, worried he might starve in his pod so she kept offering most of her survival provisions to him, setting canned food and water in front of him, probably to draw him out of hunger. However that effort also failed, though he can't eat when he's frozen and perfectly preserved, she just goes along with it, eating sparingly and speaking politely, awaiting eagerly for him to wake up any second.

After a rather one-sided and uneventful dinner, Jeanette carries Simon to the final place for the most crucial and romantic to any male-female outing: the sunset.

Jeanette finished engraving JEANETTE+SIMON onto the side of a trashcan with her laser, she and the frozen Simon sat side by side on a secluded bench overlooking the dried up valley of the Hudson Bay. Through the polluted atmosphere, it's a beautiful sunset created by the chemicals in the air altering the color spectrum of light in the sky. Rays of purple, crimson red and orange shining through clouds and smog on the horizon bathed Jeanette and Simon in a warm and intimate light.

"Aw," Jeanette coos at the sight.

Throughout the years, she's never seen the sunset in this whole new light before. She regarded it as an indication of the end of a workday, a relaxing reminder but knowing it'll be the same thing the next day, another day of meaningless labor. Now, with Simon in her life, and learning about love, the sunset reflected everything she longed forever since she watched '_It Only Takes A Moment_.' Something very safe, precious, everything she could want or need and giving her light for the events of her life to her in order for him to exist and for her to meet him, maybe, if possibly, sharing a future with him.

She looks to Simon on her left, the most wonderful source of warmth and love in the universe, more than she ever dreamed of right next to her but felt unreachable all because of the cursed cryogenic abomination encasing him from her.

Jeanette places her left hand on the pod, over where his right hand is, the closest she'd get to hold his hand, that magical gesture could instantly fill the void of her lonely heart. It could tell each other everything they needed to know about love, a simple way for her to feel where her life belonged. She looks into the closed eyes of Simon silently begging him at least let her know that he can hear what she wants to tell him so badly.

"I love you." Though frozen, she breathlessly pours her heart out to his stasis form, her puppy dog eyes reflecting the longing she felt.

_If only he were awake…_

A dreadful stinging sensation in her left hand snaps Jeanette out her thoughts when she learned she can't pull her hand off his pod.

"AAAAHHG!" she screams as razor-sharp pain stings her palm.

"Crap! Forgot to put on my gloves-" She tries pulling harder, her bare skin froze to the surface of -100˚C cryogenic frost.

"-whenever moving the pod around!" Her hand hurt and stung even more, stuck to the frost on the pod's surface.

"Ah!" She gives a hard tug, still nothing but pain.

She gives it one harder tug. Some of her hand's skin peels off as her hand comes free.

Tears formed in her eyes at the appalling pain and Jeanette drops to the ground, clasping her hand. She nearly loses her dinner at the sight of bloody tissue layer in her hand and the bloody handprint of skin on Simon's pod.

She misses the sun disappearing below the horizon as she passes out.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Nighttime has fallen later that evening over the sector. A very peaceful one too with light winds, and a cool air outside as soothing a polluted place could ever get.

Outside of Jeanette's truck, she has set up the old TV screen and Simon's pod so they could enjoy the night and the rest of their 'date.' She's playing a match of Pong on the TV, the broken down game console still workable. The score: Jeanette=8000 and Simon=0. Though frozen, she placed another controller in front of Simon to make it seem he was at least there, just not participating in the match. Jeanette flows with it, only anticipating his revival.

Her mind nags her about getting back to work tomorrow and it's getting late for a strange reason, but it's a routine that's imprinted into her . . . _must complete your directive._

She won't give up on Simon, for she can still…

Jeanette tries thinking of another alternative to get him out but she has done everything from waiting, jumpstarting, short-circuiting and courtship, only to realize the date was the best idea. She ran fresh out of ideas.

Nothing worked but like in Hello Dolly, the characters always brought out their emotions on a date. She reassured herself the film was the universal method of how dates turn out guaranteed. She thinks about the evening, how things went, following every scene to the way the date goes and on her part, was exactly what happened in the movie, she thought, it should work. Right?

She glances over to Simon one last time to see if any of her outing's efforts worked.

Nothing just his beacon humming.

She slumps to the ground, sighing in defeat, finally giving up.

"All for nothing..." she said to herself, almost on the brink of tears.

As a rare, peaceful night like this on Earth, the dark and calm chill reflected hopelessness of getting a response from him. Nothing happened and she felt it was the worst night of her life, feeling that lonely feeling again all through the night.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The next morning, Jeanette decided since there is no need to waste any more effort to wake Simon up, she will return to her original duties of garbage collecting. If she can't wake him, the only choice would be to wait but that could be a very, very long time. There isn't much else to do but pass the time with a routine until then.

She finishes packing her usual things as she heads off to work, not before taking one last look at Simon, still mentally clinging to a fading light he will somehow be there to greet her the moment he's in her sight.

Same as always, out on the ramp near the truck, still frozen solid, nothing else. He isn't going anywhere or doing anything.

It shattered whatever hopes Jeanette had left in her as she slowly continues to work with Luxor close behind, defeated. A look of pure gloom on Jeanette's face, her eyes blood-shot reddish pink from a week without sleep, energy drained from exhaustion and lastly, her tears.

* * *

><p>Something I wish to point out about the title of this particular chapter . . . it's a song by <em><strong>B.J. Thomas<strong>_ that _**Andrew Stanton **_wanted to be the track for when WALL**·** E takes care of EVE. _**Thomas Newman**_ instead wanted to make something more original instead.

I also wouldn't mind having a little more reviews.


	11. IT'S ADVENTURE TIME!

Much like what I done with SIM·N, I am having a guessing game regarding to when the other _Chipmunks_ and _Chipettes_ will appear:  
>Alvin, Theodore, Brittany and Eleanor will appear together after we meet my newly added OC, Simms Vining from my <span>Titanic<span> story though here, he'll be going by Simone (guess which rodent I'm making her and no, she's not going to be a chipmunk) who I picked to play M∙O. Charlene will appear seven chapters after the aforementioned _Chipmunks_ and _Chipettes_ make their first appearance. Happy guessing!

Speaking of reviews, for those who enjoy science fiction as well as suspense and mysteries, go check out **_Continuum Regained_**'s "The Mind's Grey Area" starring Simon Seville! I think he'll be appreciative if you people reviewed his story!  
>"<em><strong>Trapped, but where? Is this place a prison or an escape in itself? Under the constant surveillance of the mysterious Tulig, Simon tries to find a way out. But escape would mean abandoning Jeanette. Welcome to The Estate. Population: Unlimited.<strong>_" ~ "The Mind's Grey Area" summary

**Chipettes2009:** Um, I think I all ready established that back in chapter six.

**trex841:** Thanks

**rfollman:** Good luck and hopefully you pass all your finals!

**StrawberryTigress:** Thank you for commenting!

**DISCLAIMER**

_**Bagdasarian Productions**_ owns and holds the rights to _The Chipettes_.

_**Bagdasarian Productions**_ owns and holds the rights to _The Chipmunks_.

* * *

><p>Jeanette's movements are slow that day. Normally shoveling and compact several cubes in just a minute, Jeanette's depression makes minutes seem hours as she finishes her first trash cube in ten minutes of lazy scooping. She stops, feeling there is no energy or spirit within her to carry out her duties. Even Luxor sensed his master's unrest.<p>

Jeanette pulls out one of her Zippo lighters from her front pocket and flicks it on just how Simon showed her.

Jeanette stares at the tiny flame, thinking about him as memories of that evening ran through her mind, the only time she interacted with another anthropomorphic being, a wonderful chipmunk no less. The mere ten minutes she spent being with him were the most eventful and happiest in her life compared to nearly two decades of her life of surviving on Earth, she felt truly alive.

She remembers seeing his face, an image of a chipmunk that could strike so much affection into her to make her feel immeasurable love for him. She remembers his blue gray eyes looking at her when speaking for the first time, something she thought she would never get or need to do. She remembers how his warmth felt up close, the finer details of his soft skin made her ache to hold him or at least feel his touch, but as close as she got, it felt like a world apart.

She remembered his laugh, sounding sweeter than the soft tune of "_It Only Takes A Moment_" and she _loved_ making him laugh as much as she _loved_ Simon himself. Then she thought of the moment she tried holding his hand, how she came so close to feeling the warmth of her love run through him and from him to her.

Jeanette cowered away at the last second, just because she feared Simon didn't feel the same to her and would mean certain death if she dared try.

She thinks of the way he is now: cold, lifeless, and unresponsive . . . maybe completely lost.

_What if he never wakes up?_

The question resounds in her mind. In realization, Jeanette feels more alone than ever, even though he was there physically, feeling she left without the world, without life, without a reason for a life and without him…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

An earthquake resounds through the city, snapping Jeanette back into reality. She can't figure out what's happening until she notices the accelerating wind blew the lighter's flame out. She knew something was out of place. Earthquakes don't cause such strong winds.

A familiar roaring sound echoes from somewhere.

_A building collapsing? Is that what causing all this?_ she wonders.

Luxor hisses at the light emerging from the sky. Jeanette sees it's originating in the same direction of her home, and up in the sky, spotting the light of rocket engines. Simon's ship has returned.

Her mind immediately alerted of what that meant.

"NO!" she shoots to her feet.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette has never ran as fast in her life, even faster when something involves her own safety such as sandstorms, falling towers, floods or any emergency endangering her life. No, she ran because _he_ was in trouble, almost forgetting Luxor who struggled to keep up. Jeanette's insides ache from sprinting through few kilometers through a maze of trash dunes and toward home but she forces herself to go on, she must get to him.

Her worst fears confirmed as the giant reconnaissance ship Simon arrived in lands next to the bridge of her home. She's almost there but the rocket's side opened up a cargo bay, facing her truck and Simon is still out there.

"SIMMONS!"

A twinge of fear came over her as she sees a robotic arm reach out and grabs Simon's cryogenic pod and retracts into the cargo bay. He is leaving, no, being taken away from her.

"SIMMONS!" she screamed, almost out of breath from running so fast.

Jeanette will not sit back and lose him forever. She'll be damned if he leaves, being left behind to rot for the rest of her life here. No! She will get to him, tell him she loves him and wants to spend a lifetime with him, even if it takes forever to free him or if it takes her own life, she will spend at least another second with him.

Jeanette eventually figured she knew what to do.

When Luxor caught up to her, only does Jeanette realize Luxor was with her.

"Whoa!" She stops Luxor in his tracks, shooing him up the ramp of the truck.

"Stay!" she forcefully tells Luxor. The feline seems to understand as he sits down.

The sound of the ship's engines firing up snaps Jeanette into a panicked sprint, paying no mind to what she has on her or what she's leaving behind but Simon's ship will launch any minute.

She sprints after Simon, almost running over the edge of the bridge when she tries grabbing onto Simon's pod, which the robotic arm retracted into the ship. Jeanette realizes there is only one way to get on. She's gonna have to jump a hundred meter drop to the dried up Hudson River to certain death to get in the ship.

The cargo bay doors begins closing, Jeanette mentally and physically raced against tremendous odds.

Jeanette has no time to contemplate! She runs to the other edge, boosts her speed with all her energy as she dashes like a maniac, and jumps with all her might…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…she barely makes it! A twenty-foot leap of faith, Jeanette lands in the cargo hold as the bay doors seal shut behind her, the locks clicking in place with a hiss, the ship pressurized for blast off.

Jeanette twisted her ankle as she hit the deck hard. She winces at the pain but pushes it to the back of her mind as she tries to find Simon.

"SIMMONS!" she cries out to him.

Jeanette clamps onto a ladder as she tries steadily climbing to the higher decks, getting to where Simon's pod is stored.

The ship trembles and a deafening roar echoes in Jeanette's ears as the rocket boosters ignited.

Jeanette clings tightly to the support ladder for dear life as the ship lifts off.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh….."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Back on the ground, Luxor watches the reconnaissance ship blast off, hearing his master scream almost as loud as the rocket engines, even as both fade, leaving the atmosphere.


	12. Intersteller Travels

Once again, I have a guessing game regarding to when the other _Chipmunks_ and _Chipettes_ will appear:  
><em>Alvin<em>, _Theodore_, _Brittany_ and _Eleanor_ will appear together after we meet my very own ambiguous named character Simms Vining who I picked to play M∙O, though he'll be female. Guess which rodent I'm making her and no, she's not going to be a chipmunk. Charlene will appear seven chapters after the aforementioned _Chipmunks_ and _Chipettes_ make their first appearance. Happy guessing!

**StrawberryTigress: **Enjoy!**  
><strong>

**rfollman:** Hehe, thanks!

**DISCLAIMER**

**_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_** hold the rights to _The Chipettes _under **_Bagdasarian Productions_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to the late **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

_Mallory McMallard_ is a fictional character appearing in the Disney animated series Mighty Ducks inspired by and very loosely based on the live action films and NHL team of the same name.

_Sonia the Hedgehog is a fictional character in the animated series Sonic Underground, an adaption from the French cartoon _Sonic le Rebelle produced by **_DIC Entertainment_**.

_Tom Cat _is one of the protagonists in the American series of animated cartoon Tom and Jerry created by_ **William Hanna** _and _**Joseph Barbera** _for _**Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer**._

* * *

><p>Soaring through the stratosphere at hypersonic speeds, the <span>Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle<span> blasted through columns of polluted clouds as it accelerates to achieve escape velocity necessary to break free of Earth's gravity.

Jeanette immediately regretted jumping onboard, fighting desperately against the gravitational forces on her body: forcing her blood out of her head, narrowing her vision, weakening her already strained muscles, adding more pain to her injured leg and tearing tendons in her arms holding against her multiplied weight, almost making her pass out but at least she stopped screaming. Her mind racing too fast, Jeanette tightens her grip on the ladder, bracing for whatever is to come.

She glimpses outside through a porthole, seeing the brownish blue haze of the sky darkening and the curvature of the horizon.

The ship suddenly shuddered, crashing sounds echo throughout the hull.

Outside, thousands of artificial satellites cluttered together in low orbit, banging against the ship at high speed.

Then, silence.

The banging and shuddering stopped as the ship cleared Earth's junk littered upper atmosphere. The rocket boosters have shut down and its sub-light antimatter engines have engaged, zooming gracefully into outer space.

Jeanette clung onto the ladder as tight as her grip will allow, still in shock until the dead calm got her attention. She peeks outside the viewport, awestruck at the spectacular sight of the sky filled with stars, quiet and magnificent against the vast blackness. They are more beautiful than she's ever seen them before.

"Oooh…" she coos as she takes in the tranquility of space. Jeanette looks back down on the planet they left, the polluted and satellite littered atmosphere glowed in a phlegm color, highlighting the spherical shape. Already tens of thousands kilometers away, it still looked ugly with the green oceans and tan desert landmasses as it is up close, even the ground, which they departed from in the sector, was noticeable. Earth looked far smaller than the pictures shown in the geophysics section in a tome of an ancient second hand Earth Science textbook.

Something didn't feel right, Jeanette failed to notice she let go of her grip but she didn't fall. Forgetting there is no gravity in space, Jeanette tries to grab on to the ladder in a panic but decides against it.

She felt…good, the weightlessness, the peace and quiet, the heavenly starlight, it all felt like euphoria to Jeanette like floating inside a womb, an experience she never thought possible. Sure, Jeanette never thought this kind of thing in her life, she was afraid of new things, but, she decides to just go with it.

She savors the trip up the cargo hold where Simon's pod is stored. The zero gravity taking the labor out of climbing a ladder, moreover, making her feel like she could fly like Simon.

Jeanette grabs a hold onto the bays many structural bars and sees Simon's pod secured into place with four other identical pods just like his. Three of them had frozen beings whilst an empty pod nestled in the middle. A fiery redheaded pale yellow female duck older than the rest slept in the pod next to him. The fowl had a sleeveless, skintight violet body suit matching her fingerless wrist guards. Both her bust and waist are lavender, the two article of clothing sandwiching the violet midriff. In the forth pod laid an orchid haired, eggplant fur hedgehog. The hedgehog's uniform consisted of a burgundy skirt and a dark shade of purple sleeveless top, a band of gold formed a pointed shape at the front of her waist. Burgundy boots crawled up her dark shade of purple stockings and burgundy gloves came close to the elbows. A blue and white domestic shorthair anthropomorphic male cat occupied the last pod. His attire matched Simon's but a different shade of blue replaced the Alice blue. Simon's pod was the only one with a glowing green light whilst the others lay dormant. Only caring about the glowing pod's occupant, she floats over to see his face through the pod just under a wide viewport.

"Look at that, Simmons," she says to his catatonic form, knowing he can't hear her but he was there with her.

Outside, Jeanette can see the moon passing by them, the radiant pure whitish gray powdered lunar surface looked indistinguishable from snow, shining brilliantly against the blackness. They were close enough to see the ancient Apollo landing sites, the golden skinned Landers, the American flag of the old United States, the rover perfectly preserved by the weather free vacuum of space… a Buy N' Large holographic sign flicked on nearby, reading 'BUY N' LARGE OUTLET COMING SOON!' Buy N' Large everywhere.

Jeanette sighs in wonder as she floats weightlessly next to Simon, staring out at the cosmos, having a front row seat to the most ecstatic light show in the universe: the universe itself.

"It's so spectacular…just like you," she said quietly to him, longing he could savor the view she witnesses before her.

She stays like that for some time, noting every celestial spectacle and constellation the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle comes across as it sets out on its trajectory to leave the Solar System_._

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The ride went smoothly but moved fast at a fraction of light speed, which is three hundred, thousand kilos per second throughout the next few days, with antimatter engines and gravitational assistance. Within twelve hours after they left Earth, the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle had slingshot around the sun and centrifugal force of the maneuver propel them to the outer planets, Jeanette enjoying every moment and view of them. She especially loved the strange ring world named Saturn, the dark blue auroras of the planets clouds and ice rings were mesmerizing as Simon's eyes.

After twenty-four hours since lift off, the ship cruised through the Kuiper Belt, at the very edge of Sol. Jeanette drank in the colorful glows of the starlit ice clouds if in a lysergic acid diethylamide trip influence like experience.

Three days later, the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle had the perfect view of the Oort cloud surrounding the Solar System. Its foggy appearance beyond the Kuiper Belt formed a nebula-like blur of tiny particles surrounding a tiny central speck that is actually the sun, surrounded by a local cluster of neighboring star systems. Hard to believe such celestial bodies looked so small, and no matter what world she is on, she's part of the constellations.

After a week of traveling, Jeanette is struck senseless other than her eyesight by the cluster of trillions of stars whirling in deep space in a godly sized vortex centered on a radiant, cloudy core spanning her entire eyesight against the void. It was the entire Milky Way galaxy and she was at the very edge of it, the best view of it possible. The slow moving twirl of glimmering stardust arms hypnotizing, each star in a solar system and there were billions and billions of them out there. The galactic disk looks it was made of every color spectrum possible. Its beauty the most blinding image Jeanette had ever seen, a picture of this moment in her memory that she will hold forever.

However, it always will be unsurpassed only by the first time she laid eyes on Simon.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette had to break away from looking out the window at some point during her travel but she never broke away from being next to Simon or at least keeping her eyes on him. She didn't know where they were going or how long they will be gone, she surely doesn't want to starve or freeze to death before they get there because she may never live to see Simon again.

She completely forgot about her own survival or her body's needs. She didn't bring any provisions or any food, just her pacemaker's charger, cassette player, utility bag and a Zippo lighter. Jeanette's stomach growled furiously as she not eaten, too restless from the completely new experience to sleep. Accustomed to the hot temperatures of Earth's sandy deserts, Jeanette found it very cold for the cryogenic pods needed dry sub-freezing air of the ship in order to function properly in freezing conditions, the extreme coolness spreading to all of the environmental systems.

As she searched the whole ship, she was surprised to discover there were space traveler's supplies, a bunk, food and water but no one onboard but her, Simon and the three other frozen anthropomorphic beings. Now she felt alone again with a hibernating Simon, trillions and trillions of kilometers from home.

Jeanette kept her attention between Simon, the outside view and searching whatever part of the ship in order to keep herself comfortable against the thought of being so far away from Earth. About this time, she grown use to the zero gravity, finding it such a blessing to move around so easily like swimming in air. Her sprained ankle nicely healed in the weightlessness, hardly felt any pain without the need to support her own weight.

She eventually found the control room in the front of the ship within view of Simon in the cargo hold. The cockpit controls and seats all present. Jeanette looked over the control pad glistening and glowing with touch-activated holographic screens filled with celestial navigation readouts, engineering and mechanical status and all kinds of other systems. To Jeanette, it was incomprehensible, despite having a high IQ, there were A LOT of things Jeanette doesn't know about how much advanced technologies have developed since civilization left.

Something on one screen caught her attention, a map. Touching it, a three dimensional hologram projection of an interstellar star chart appears. It highlighted the red dot of the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle and the green line of the already traversed trajectory from Earth, out of Sol, through the local cluster, past hundreds of other star systems within the Orion Arm and finally to the outer galactic rim.

A very short, hair-distanced red line lay before the vehicle's direction, their destination a rather large object hidden in a nebula just beyond the galaxy's very edge. Jeanette zooms in on it and a hologram of a spaceship shaped like an oceanic vessel appear highlighted with the title "Buy N' Large SL-AX-0001."

Jeanette looked outside, shocked to find the same purple aurora clouds of the nebula on the map right before her. Wherever they were going, they were almost to a silhouette through the clouds.

What is it?

Jeanette will find out soon enough.


	13. STOWAWAY On deck

I found a link for "Legend of Sleeping Brittany": http : / / www . youtube . com / watch ? v = F _ 7kSn6tZAU. Remember to remove the spaces.

**WALL-E and EVE In Love:** I think I said I was having an OC for M·O.

**Continuum Regained:** Which is exactly why I'm doing both this and SIM·N. What do you mean revising Chapter 12?

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

_Simone Vining_ is a newly added ambiguous name created and owned by **_Spring-Heel-Jacqueline_**.

_Darwin Thornberry _is a fictional chimpanzee in an American animated television series The Wild Thornberry's created by **_Klasky-Csupo_** that aired on **_Nickelodeon_**.

_Porky Pig_ is an animated cartoon character in the **_Warner Bros._** Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons.

_The March Hare_ is _The Mad Hatter_'s best friend in the 1951 American animated feature Alice in Wonderland produced by **_Walt Disney_** based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass written by **_Lewis Carroll_**.

_SwatBots_ are fictional robots that belong to Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground.

_Ixix Naugus_ is a fictional famed sorcerer appearing in the Sonic the Hedgehog series or called SatAM by fans as well as a recurring character in Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by **_Archie Comics_**.

_Stimpy_ is one of the fictional main protagonists in The Ren & Stimpy Show or just simply Ren & Stimpy, a Canadian-American animated television series created by Canadian animator **_John Kricfahusi_**.

* * *

><p>There's something hidden within the purple nebula. Whatever it is, it's big.<p>

_A planet?_ No, it's not spherical.

_A planetoid? An asteroid?_ Jeanette speculates, trying to make out its shape, looking strangely familiar.

As the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle clears through the purple gaseous clouds, Jeanette can see it clearly, gasping upon realizing it is an enormous starship.

Five kilometers long from bow tip to aft tip, and its superstructure from the keel to it's spire must be at least seven kilometers high. It's primarily designed like Earth's ancient oceanic cruise liners, a fat hull with thousands, maybe millions of viewports, a streamlined superstructure and communications tower and traditional designed bow and stern. It had another superstructure to it, a sort of engineering spire running down the keel, giving the vessel a look of a space station. Two massive Ion Drive engines were on each side with propulsive motors a hundred times bigger than the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle. The Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle approached the bow's starboard side bearing the unmistakable red circle along with the white and blue lettering of the Buy N' Large logo. It's a Buy N' Large star liner, but not just any, it must be a flagship, the largest of the fleet.

Jeanette notices the christened name above the logo and confirms its familiarity.

"Buy N' Large's_ AXIOM _SL-AX-1001."

It's the very same ship seen from those holographic ads back on Earth, the largest moving object ever constructed by human hands. Jeanette never believed it actually existed or would ever see it to be real and here it proudly was.

The _Axiom_ filled the view of the cockpit's window as the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle is about a kilometer away. Simon stares almost straight up at it.

The reconnaissance ship slows down as it lines up next to the _Axiom_.

"Whoa," Jeanette floats back believing they were going to hit, feeling a bit worried standing next to that goliath.

The side of the _Axiom's_ fifty by a hundred meter doors big enough for the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle to fit slides opens.

Two, smaller unmanned tug ships emerge from the opened bay and pass around the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle.

The smaller ships made way for the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle as they each emitted blue tractor beams of light on the ship, guiding autopilot craft in.

Jeanette stays frozen in place, floating in zero gravity, clasping the chair making sure not to do anything erroneous.

The doors closed with a hiss of air as the docking bay depressurizes.

The Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle encounters locking clamps, the ship braces into place with a satisfying clink. The tug rockets disengage the tractor beam, the recon ship slides down a tad, as its weight is supported.

Jeanette feels artificial gravity kick in as she falls to the cockpit deck, landing hard.

"Ow."

Jeanette tries to stand but keeps falling over, feeling no strength in her to support her own weight, it almost hurts to try.

_How can I forget? Being in zero gravity for a prolonged time weakens the bones and muscles_,Jeanette grunted.

_If I keep moving around, my strength should return . . . eventually . . ._

She clasps onto the side viewport, trying to pull herself up to relay her new surroundings. The inside of the docking bay unlike anything Jeanette has ever seen. It was all clean, brightly lit, sterile, advanced, well maintained and robotics everywhere, an opposite environment from where she came from. She notices no crew present at all, everything here unmanned. The only thing not a robot she has seen yet was Simon and the other anthropomorphic beings. She wonders if this entire ship could be his home.

The deck suddenly bustles with mechanical activity. Robotic arms, robotic devices, robotic equipment, robotic everything tended to the recon ship in all directions like an automated facility show, refueling its engines, running diagnostics on its systems, unloading cargo, repairing its—

Wait! One of the things unloading was Simon's pod along with the other frozen E.V.R.E. scouts.

"Simmons!" Jeanette tries gathering her slowly returning strength to get to him. She crawls and clasps his way to the open hatch. Jeanette manages to get enough strength to stand.

A noise startles her. She notices movement coming from out of the deck next to Simon's pod, placed along with the other pods.

She hides behind one of the cryogenic pods, listening closely to the sounds and movement. An elevator emerges from the deck, and there stood anthropomorphic beings.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A squad of four anthropomorphic post-recon cleaners dressed in white and blue uniforms carrying sterilizing equipment.

One of them, a short teenage silky gray gopher with a bushy curled tail, wearing a newspaper carrier cap on her blonde pixie cut hair that had a red siren light on top and a darkened transparent Head's Up Display over her soft golden amber eyes stepped out. She wore a white jumpsuit with her name 'SIMONE' imprinted on her nametag and equipped with high-tech microbe obliteration scrubber and a container with lots of sterilization fluid strapped to her back. She wore heavy duty cleaning gloves and boots much like Jeanette's but rubber and far cleaner. About a head or two shorter than the rest of the crew, not to mention younger, but judging from her serious pose, she must have been the head in charge of them. She tries lining up the other three behind her. They seem to be having a hard time trying to pay attention.

"Alright, follow me. Whoa, whoa! WHOA! Stop!" he steps off the elevator but tries to stay in sync with an awaiting lighted path at their feet.

"Simone! Come on! It's just a bloody guide path. Let's just get the job done!" The light gray furred, long faced chimpanzee in a white tank top holding slug with a vacuuming device protests a distinct upper-class British accent.

"D-D-D-Darwin's right," A light pink pig stuttered, an azure opened jacket over his uniform and a red bow tie around his neck.

"S-s-s-stop being such a-a-a-an O.C.!" The cleaner pig finished.

"Shut up! We don't move unless our path is cleared to go!" Simone shouts back to them.

Sure enough, the directed path to Simon's pod pinged on.

"Alright, let's go!" Simone clears them to make their way over to Simon's lowered pod. A slender tan rabbit with a deep purple nose, messy yellow hair matted on his head and, unlike the other three who wore white pants, he wore sepia, slightly jabbed Porky in the rib.

"People say I'm cuckoo?" he says twirling his pointer finger around his ear and the other two stifled their laughter. Simone overhears him.

"I heard that! It's not funny!" Simone says defensively as the other three laugh at her, hating being joked about her cleanliness and pathological fear of contamination and germs.

Simone shouldn't let the fact of her subordinates and fellow crew ridiculing her from get from her age, to her height, and most of all, her Obsessive Compulsive behavior bother her. She had to stay focused and look professional, in order to compensate for the name-calling.

Being the youngest certified crewmember on the _Axiom_, personally charged with the maintenance and sterilization of the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle and all of its imports and exports. Pretty much the overseer of the docking operations, she took pride in her job well, maybe too well, always scrubbing and cleansing every microbe off all the cargo that went in and out of the ship as well as always following textbook procedures and protocol, even for the simplest of tasks.

In addition, that's exactly what Simone intends to do, stick to the standard operating procedure and ensure cleanliness of this ship! She congregates her thoughts standing prepared and ignoring the other crewmembers rolling their eyes.

Simone activates her Heads-Up Display and begins scanning Simon's pod, looking for anything that changed on the pod and its occupants during their missions. She noticed the glowing pulse of Simon's beacon, something she never seen before. Nevertheless, it doesn't concern her, it'll be squawked by maintenance soon when they arrive.

She switches her vision over to electron micro-scan, Simon's pod lights up in some places as bacterial traces of soil particulates detected, dust a form of atmospheric/domestic aerosol that can become a deadly respiratory disease carrier onboard a sterilized spaceship. Her vision evaluates and reads aloud:

"_SIXTEEN PERCENT FOREIGN CONTAMINATION._"

"Oh!" Taking out her scrubber, Simone scrubs in professional strokes across the surface of Simon's pod in disgust.

The E.V.R.E. Scouts were among the messiest of shipments, returning from their top-secret destinations unwittingly bringing back god-knows-what from whatever world they explored.

She finishes her last minute scrub as the others get to work on sterilizing, buffering, polishing, finishing the pod and moving on to the next one.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette watches from behind the cryogenic pods, still trying to figure out what to do. Her strength returned quite a bit so she could move and sneak around. Save for the cryogenic pods, there isn't much to hide behind. She looks at the empty cryogenic pod, and then shifts her attention over to the cleaners, studying their routine.

"Hmm," An idea brews in her head.

She opens the vacant pod, lies down and closing it without making a sound. As the robotic arm retrieves her pod, Jeanette braces herself for whatever is to come.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simone finishes off the second pod and turns her attention to the next lowered one as the others finish up.

Simone activates her HUD.

"Huh? What's this?" The pod registered empty but it's been opened and recently tampered with and there's something, or someone, inside.

She notices new handprints on the side and movement. Someone IS inside the pod.

Simone opens the pod.

"What the?"

Jeanette freezes.

Simone stares at Jeanette, never seeing this kind of person before.

"Who are-" Before Simone asks who the stranger is, she finally notices Jeanette's weathered attire. Confused, she activates her micro-scan.

It almost blinds Simone when all of Jeanette's registered dust, dirt, crud, grime, oil, grease, sand and bodily sweat altogether.

"_OVER ONE HUNDRED PERCENT FOREIGN CONTAMINATION!_" her scanner screamed off the charts but Simone screamed even louder as she jumped up awestruck and horrified at the presence of such filth and uncleanness, her siren lighting up.

"Oh my god! What the hell is this? No, no, no, so wrong! So dirty! Very, very dirty!" Simone goes haywire. Jeanette shrinks down in confusion and fear.

"Must clean immediately! Eradicate any and all foreign contamination!"

Simone pulls out her scrubber, reading to furiously wash down Jeanette.

"Ah! G-Get away from me!" Jeanette dodges, missing Simone's scrubber.

"Agh! Get off me!" Jeanette cries out.

"Stand still, I must clean!" Simone reaches out to Jeanette, trying to scrub her face.

"Aaaagh! I said I have to CLEAN you!" Simone groans in frustration, watching Jeanette fall out of the pod and pushing Simone clear off her.

"AAAGH! STOP MAKING SUCH A MESS!" Simone shrieks in anger as this horrifying filthiness worsens.

"Simone? What is going on?" The other three cleaners stare at Jeanette and Simone, amused by the sight of their neurotic colleague losing her mind.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

At the far end of the bay, a hatch opens and three figures come marching into the docking bay.

Two of them bulky ten foot purple and deep puce robot guards with red eyes lens, the SwatBots of the ship. They carried energy binder handcuffs, tractor beam pens, electroshock batons, taser guns and siren.

The third is an ugly hybrid of a being of no identifiable species that stood three feet, four inches. His facial features that of a peach furred bat with large pointed bat ears, a horn of a rhinoceros on his forehead, blood red eyes and a long white beard. His body thick like a rhinoceros and muscular in structure and possibly has a hunched back, his left four-digit hand replaced with a lobster claw and a pointed reptilian tail dragged on the ground. A distinguishable gray high collar on his shirt, the gray matching his gloves and boots as well as shoulder sleeves on his Buy N' Large Navy uniform bore the enlisted stripes of Command Master Chief Petty Officer, the chief of the boat and head of security along with service nametag reading "MASTER CHIEF PETTY OFFICER IXIS NAUGUS."

They marched in the direction of the commotion at the cleaner station. The look on the bearded hybrid's face meant business.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The commotion is the heavy laughter of the cleaning crew watching Simone having a hard time trying to keep up with cleaning Jeanette's every movement on the deck, tracking the hundred fold layers of germs on Jeanette's entire body, dust mites drifting in the air and falling to the ground.

Simone finishes Jeanette's last footprint with great speed.

"Alright you! Time for me to-"

Jeanette takes another step back, out of fear and amusement at the neurotic little female gopher.

"Oh COME ON!" Simone scrubs with compulsive precession and speed. Jeanette is fascinated that she isn't the only quirk in the universe.

"Look! Everything needs to stay clean! UNDERSTAND?"

Simone tries to leap for the chipette but Jeanette, having learned of Simone's little weakness, slaps a handful into Simone's face, trying to shoe her off.

"Hey-" When Simone finally processes Jeanette just slapped dirt into her face, her mysophopia kicks in.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Losing it, Simone scrubs her face with full force and speed in panic.

Jeanette chuckles in relief, then notices the rest of the crew are too distracted to notice her as they are laughing their rear ends off at Simone. She notices a new group approaching them, two bulky robots and one ugly hybrid being looked serious.

With no one looking, Jeanette quickly and quietly jumps back into the empty cryonic pod, wanting to see where this goes.

"What the hell *wheeze* is going on here?"

The cleaning crew instantaneously sobered up, trembling when realization struck they were caught goofing by Chief Naugus.

"I said *wheeze* 'what in the hell *wheeze* is going on?' sailors *wheeze*!" the chief had a slow, wheezing but powerful voice of a drill instructor, sending a spine straightening terror down their backs as they stood at attention, including Simone, his face still dirty but had just a big fear of superiors.

"N-N-Nothing sir!" Simone nervously stuttered.

"You know the rules! No *wheeze* insubordinate behavior on duty *wheeze*! Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" they shouted in unison.

"A'ight, return to *wheeze* your standby stations immediately, we *wheeze* will be taking over these pods for post-mission *wheeze* evaluation. For these cryonic pods *wheeze* and occupants contain highly classified information, *wheeze* now leave!"

"Aye sir." Simone and the other three began marching out of the bay.

Chief Naugus pulled out a security chip from his pocket and inserted it into the fifth pod's side.

It chirped, not recognizing any biological data collected.

"Negative," Naugus said empathetically as he moved to pod four, apparently been doing this same meaningless routine for a long time.

"Negative." Same result for pod four, he moves on to the next one.

"Negative," Naugus was about to move on to the next pod when he saw movement in pod three.

"What the?" he jerks his head back. The figure in the pod motionless through the fogged metallic casing, its occupant looked dirty.

"Eh, no surprise Stimpy *wheeze* got himself dirty . . . again," Naugus shrugs it off as he moves on to pod two.

"Whew," Jeanette sighs quietly in relief, risking a peek at the person inspecting her pod. She lies back as stiff and lifeless as she could and tried not to make a single sound.

This time she risked another look at the person still on pod two, approaching Simon's pod.

"Negative," Naugus pulls out the chip and plugs it in to Scout One's pod.

"Neg-" A confirmative chirping from Simon's pod cut Naugus off.

"Huh?" He is speechless. A positive, this has never happened, it shouldn't be possible.

"It's gotta *wheeze* be a malfunction."

He notices the pulsating green light.

"Is it . . ." One of the SwatBots whispers.

"Yes. *wheeze* It's reading positive." Naugus hastily taps his intercommunication earpiece.

"This is Master Chief Naugus *wheeze* in RECON DOCKING to COMMAND, Charlie Gulf, I *wheeze* repeat, Charlie Gulf. We have a vegetation scout *wheeze* who's recovered a live specimen! This is no bull,*wheeze* I repeat! We have a *wheeze* Code Green!" Naugus said with utmost alertness.

At that moment, the entire dock came to a halt as an alarm sounded, all the lights turning green.

Jeanette's heart raced as she tried to process all this new confusing commotion, hearing everything through the pod. Is something happening to Simon or was going to happen to him?

A few seconds later, Naugus's intercommunication device gets a response.

"This is COMMAND to DOCKING. We have confirmed your findings, now we need further authentication. Report the E.V.R.E. scout to the BRIDGE immediately." A monotone voice replies on the other end of the line.

"Aye Aye."Naugus switches off his earpiece, tapping a command onto a holographic computer pad and in just a moment, a maglev tram floats up to them.

Naugus turns to the SwatBots.

"Orders are to report *wheeze* to the BRIDGE, we are to bring *wheeze* Scout One to the captain and *wheeze* first officer, to see if *wheeze* this is legit, so let's get to it!"

"Sir, yes sir." One SwatBot tapped a command into Simon's pod.

Simon's pod suddenly levitates off the ground and lowers into the tram. Jeanette almost jumps out of her pod when she sees them taking him away.

Naugus and his guards board the tram and begin to hover off.

"Simmons!" Jeanette runs out of the pod and quietly sprints after the tram to the elevator the men entered without hesitation.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simone crouched down from her workstation on the second level of the dock, wondering about the one pod, unable to hear the chief's voice even without that damn loud alarm.

_What is Code Green anyway and what's so secret about those pods?_

What concerned Simone even more was finding that unknown chipette unlike anything she's ever encountered before.

_She IS a mess,_ Simone thought, her compulsion saying clean her no matter what but duty has a strong hold as well.

She spots the messy chipette dash across the deck and disappearing behind the elevator doors with the chief, the SwatBots and the pod.

After Simone watches her disappear-

_Wait a sec, didn't she leave tracks?_ Her neurosis nagged.

Her electron micro-scan activated, she could see that unknown chipette's footprints from kilometers away in a spotless environment.

"Agh, Forthright!" she cursed, now she has to clean up her trail but…what about where she is going? Her mind calculates some of her speculations.

_What if she was after that pod? If I go after her, I could get in serious trouble for following a secretive device, not to mention leaving this dock._

"_FOREIGN CONTAMINATION!_"her visor breaks her away from thought. Actually, it gave her a thought.

Well, she would be cleaning dirt as far as it goes if ever caught outside of here and it is her job to obliterate all unsterilized matter on this ship for health safety. In any sense, she's obeying protocol but then she would have to face the wrath of Chief Naugus in that light after told not to differ from duty. She weighed her options and made a decision.

She double-checks if the other three left to their stations. Safe, no one paid attention all.

Simone jumps down to the deck and begins scrubbing away, from the tracks to wherever that chipette followed the chief's tram.

"I wonder what's in that pod is so important to her?" Simone asks herself.


	14. the AXIOM

Well, this story now has over 1,250 hits! That's awesome!

Anyways, I'll be starting school tomorrow and I thought I would post a chapter of a story of mine before I get swamped with schoolwork . . .

Is it possible that I can get . . . oh I dunno . . . more than five reviews on here? Please and thank you!

Once again, I need votes under my poll entitled "For my TITANIC story, what name variant should 60s DAVE SEVILLE go by?" with six choices and you can choose up to three. The one with the most votes is the one I will use and after we meet both _50/60s_ _Dave Seville_ and _80/90s_ _Dave Seville_, it will be taken down and I will put the "Jeanette name variation" poll back up . . . which by the way has two votes each . . . on both choices.

One last note is I know **drkseeker233** needs at least FOUR more OC's to fill in for the parts of Past Warrior of Light, Past Warrior of Air/Wind, Past Warrior of Nature and Past Warrior of Earth for her story "The Twelve Elements." I know she would really appreciate it! :)

**WALL-E and EVE In Love**: What? You're not gonna say it on my other stories?

**MissSteph22:** No comment on the "waiting for the version where Simon and Jeanette do kiss" but I have to agree with why _Theodore _and _Eleanor_ don't kiss, just like I wonder why _CGI Simon_ and _CGI Jeanette_ don't have a scene in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.

**BChart2:** Thanks! Haha! Took me a bit to figure out what you meant by you saying I could use those quotes from your story! I completely forgotten all about it!

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

_Ixix Naugus_ is a fictional famed sorcerer appearing in the Sonic the Hedgehog series or called SatAM by fans as well as a recurring character in Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by **_Archie Comics_**.

_SwatBots_ are fictional robots that belong to Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground.

_Screwball "Screwy" Squirrel_ is a cartoon character created by **_Tex Avery_** for **_Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer_**.

Originally named _Fitz_, _Bimbo_ is a fictional cartoon dog created by **_Fleischer Studios_** who first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series, later becoming the star of Talkartoons but then relegated to a supporting character when his girlfriend became a more popular character, thus Talkartoons animated series becoming the Betty Boop series in 1932.

_Slappy Squirrel_ is a fictional character in the animated series collaborated by **_Steven Spielberg _**and **_Warner Bros. Animation_**, Animaniacs produced by **_Warner Bros. Animation_** and **_Amblin Entertainment_**, distributed by **_Warner Bros. Television_**.

_Brandy Harrington_ is one of the two main protagonists in the animated American television series Brandy & Mr. Whiskers televised in the United States by **_Toon Disney_** as well as **_Disney Channel _**in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

* * *

><p>Chief Naugus waits tensely as the elevator quickly passes deck after deck, his mind running a mile a minute, thinking of the importance of the pod's contents he's transporting and what's going to happen. He looks up at the elevator holographic screen. From <span>DOCKING<span>, they left thirteen levels below, the MAIN DECK thirty seven levels up and the BRIDGEanother kilometer forward through the deck. As much of a large-scaled technological wonder and achievement the _Axiom_ is, he hated having to travel so far through a maze, especially to relay something vital to COMMAND and he's gonna have to go through passengers once he gets on deck, something not very well liked by most of the crew. At least he has an independently running transporter tram, one running in its own directions instead of lighted paths for the hover chairs, speeding things up a lot.

Naugus glimpses a look behind him, thinking he heard a sound. There is nothing but the obedient yet oblivious SwatBots standing at attention patiently waiting to transport the pod. He turns his attention back to the elevator door, wishing they were there by now.

Jeanette hid behind the transport behind the guards as the chief looked back. The elevator ride smooth and without a peep, almost quiet as travelling aboard the Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle. She could only hear her own breathing, betting these robots had excellent attention spans and will spot her any moment. Jeanette held her breath, trying not to expose herself, praying the elevator ride wouldn't last much longer. She looks away, inwardly sighing in relief.

Still hiding behind the transport, Jeanette looked at the catatonic Simon through the chassis. She pats the side of the pod his head is on, like petting him, taking care of him.

_It's going to be alright, Simmons, I'm here. _She chased after him without any foresight to whatever lies ahead. The way he is now, even at the hands of other being like herself, he seem to be in some form of harm in her eyes, still frozen and completely unsure what 'Code Green' meant. Could it be he is to be harmed? Taken away? Or any other way that could separate or end in pain for her and Simon?

The elevator doors open, drawing Jeanette's attention to the tram already moving out. It comes to a stop outside the elevator, waiting for something. Jeanette risks a peek from the corner of Simon's pod to see a long passageway filled with things moving by at high speeds. Wait, those things passing by are beings, anthropomorphic cats, dogs, primates, rodents, amphibians and many more! All of them on trams just like Simon's, all moving about at whiplashing speeds. They are all crew of technicians, engineers, mechanics, welders, electricians, SwatBots, painters, cleaners, suppliers and so on. There are about eight outlined paths for the crew in the florescent lit long sterile corridor, four each going in opposite directions. It's a maintenance level in rush hour, everyone on their way to their directives throughout the ship.

Jeanette's neck gets sore from trying to process the fast-moving vehicles and anthropomorphic beings inside them, fascinated by it all. She wonders how in Forthright's name is she gonna get through that with Simon as she looked at him, only to notice the transport is gone.

"Aah!"

Adrenaline spikes in her mind as she realizes Naugus's tram left without her! She had to think quickly, his pod moving fast and has only a split-second to figure out what next.

"Oooooh boy." She looks at the speeding traffic, gulping at the thought of trying to go after him through here. The road too narrow on the sidelines, she has to go _into_ the flow of traffic.

Her heart pounding in her head, Jeanette placed herself in danger and Simon is leaving again, she had better move quickly! She spots an opening between two passing hover trams, moving fast but far enough apart for Jeanette to jump through. At least she thinks so…

Jeanette times it carefully for she'll be squashed or rammed over if too early or too late.

She makes her move and jumps in between the passing vehicles.

"Whoa!" a dark orange and white squirrel with a humungous black nose and buckteeth driving a hover tram suddenly stops.

Crash!

The squirrel ends up causing the next tram to crash into him and the next one to crash into that. Jeanette has created a pile up.

No one was hurt but Jeanette almost killed herself and the drivers. She reassesses her surroundings, the maglev highway too narrow for her to walk between, so if she can just climb onto one of those transports, it would make her trip a lot easier. Jeanette still has to move! Simon is getting farther and farther from her!

_Ah, screw this. _Jeanette rather jumps onto a vehicle to carry her there, not walk in between and harm anyone else.

A freight tam passes by and...

Jeanette grabs onto the passing tram, which yanks her off her feet. She felt she had her arms ripped off but she collects her composure as she stands up on the freighter. The oversized owl driving hasn't noticed her yet. As she looks ahead, there's an intersection coming, the paths splitting into other directions, Simon going straight ahead, but her tram isn't! She'll have to jump onto another one. She waits for another vehicle to pass her at just the right moment.

Jeanette jumps again…

She hits the side hard as she tries to board another freighter, hitting the ground and skidding to a halt. Jeanette winces and whines at the pain, banging her knees and elbows along with a newly formed bruise on the side of her head. The half weasel, half otter hybrid, wearing goggles on his head and hand guards along with his Buy N' Large uniform driving the freighter shouts curses at Jeanette but she doesn't care. Jeanette looks around, noting her glasses fell off and she retrieves them before traffic ran over them. She puts her glasses back and sees she is right in the middle of the intersection, not standing on any of the lines, safe for now.

The traffic is chaotic, all the vehicles passing and missing each other by inches as they change directions. Not remembering where Simon went, Jeanette begins to panic at being lost.

In the direction that seems to go up a slope, there is a sign reading AFT MAINTANENCE CORRIDOR-TO–AFT PASSENGER CORRIDOR, under it is a tram with a cryogenic pod in the distance.

"Simmons!" Relieved and drawn, Jeanette immediately runs through the passing intersection vehicles chasing after Simon, oblivious to hover trams almost running her over and the resulting pile up as they braked to stop.

Jeanette continued to run up the sloped passageway, not caring to realize the passageway she came from not too narrow to run through anymore.

Jeanette reaches another set of hover lines, but they seemed different now. Instead of white lighted paths, they're blue. Jeanette noticed a strange looking hover vehicle in front of her. The small craft seemed automated, guiding itself along the blue-lighted maglev lines on the floor. She runs up to see what it is.

The vehicle is a hover chair and sitting in it… a creature. It's a big creature, a really, BIG creature! Morbidly obese is actually a better word.

_Wait a minute,_ Jeanette notices the tan skin, face, and features of a human body. The creature is actually a human!

This was certainly the fattest human Jeanette had ever seen. A male Buy N' Large passenger who looked like a giant human infant, weighing four hundred fifty to five hundred pounds, his skin bloated like a blob and soft to the touch like gelatin wearing a red jumpsuit bearing a Buy N' Large logo. His arms and legs short and stubby, like not meant for usage.

_Is it physically possible for humans to be like that? _Jeanette wondered as she looks at this strange new being.

Reclined in the chair, a holographic screen seemed presented right in front of his face with speakers mounted on his headrest, blocking his peripheral vision, completely lost in his own sensual world. He is talking to someone on the screen.

"Look man, I've been in my cabin all morning, so why don't we say we hover over to the driving range and hit a few virtual balls into space?" The Caucasian sounded bored out of his mind.

"Nah, we did that yesterday I don't wanna do that," the African-American man on the holographic-screen complained.

"Well then what DO you want to do?"

Lost looking at the man, Jeanette doesn't notice the exact man he's talking to right next to him.

"I dunno, somethin.'" Jeanette looks over her shoulder to finally see the second man, another Buy N' Large passenger just as fat and baby-looking like the other man, lost in his own world of the hover chair. Jeanette looks at them, the two humans having no idea they are within each other's presence.

"Huh," Jeanette slows down her pace as she reaches the entrance to the MAIN DECK. Jeanette merges in, and pauses in amazement.

The corridor bustled with human activity. There must be hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of other humans everywhere.

They are ALL fat in hover chairs with the same red jumpsuits and holographic-screens in their faces just the ones she saw a second ago. Blue lines crisscrossed one another on the floor, a maze of perplex directions of hover chairs. Jeanette's mind can't process all of them, moving in all directions and talking nonstop.

Jeanette carefully makes her way passing line after line of hover chairs toward another concourse, until getting into the same direction of the traffic flow. She realizes not one person noticed her yet. Who couldn't? She remembers she is the filthiest being on the _Axiom_, can't be hard to find walking dirt against a sterile environment, not to mention comparing her fur and bones appearance, she really stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone remains oblivious to their surroundings, glued to their holographic screens, trapped in their own virtual realities. Each one of them had over-developed fingers tapping commands into their chair's armrest keypads. Jeanette sees one woman complaining she's hungry. Out of nowhere, a black furred stout dog with a white face, hands and belly in a hand knitted sweater and golden shoes ran to her, bringing an unbelievable large three-litter cup of a liquid food like substance, like a fast food kind. The server puts the cup in the passenger's open hand and she gulps it down. She didn't move a muscle, if she had any.

Jeanette looks around again, they all ordered food, played games, or chatted. Chatting, chatting, chatting, and more chatting! It's deafening and everywhere! People talking mindlessly to one another without moving, moving without any reason to, they all amazed and disgusted Jeanette somehow, how can people live like this? These people are the ultimate example of couch potatoes.

Jeanette passes through another tunnel: AFT PASSAGER CORRIDOR-TO-MAIN DECK. The lit end of the tunnel shines brightly as Jeanette sees clearly before her in complete awe, the MAIN DECK.

A feminine voice echoes throughout the vast open space.

"_BUY N' LARGE, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BE HAPPY. YOUR DAY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US!_"

It's a city-sized ultra mall, a half metropolis/half consumer-goods shop inside a giant starship.

Living quarter rooms rose hundreds of floors up and elevated hover lines move in all directions like freeways. In the distance are shopping centers shaped like futuristic skyscrapers showing endless holographic Buy N' Large advertisements where the direction of the voice seemed to endlessly barrage people with its consumerism. Beyond that, was the sky? Impossible, she is in space. Jeanette noticed the image of a fake sun above her, projected on the inner dome of the _Axiom's_ hull hundreds of meters high, high enough to call the sky. On the sun's face was a Buy N' Large logo, the time read 12:16 PM and the temperature 72˚ F. The _Axiom_ feels A LOT bigger from the inside.

"Hey waiter!" Jeanette snaps back into reality when her senses register someone is addressing her.

A man to her left hovered up to her and tries to hand Jeanette his empty cup, still unaware that Jeanette isn't a waiter nor of any surroundings like everyone else.

"Here, take the cup."

Jeanette backs away a bit but the man asks again.

"I said take the cup," the man sounded like he is becoming slightly annoyed. He tries to reach out further to Jeanette, finally breaking his eyes from the holographic-screen in front of him.

"Uuh..." Jeanette tries to utter she isn't a server but the man presses on.

"Come on! Take the cup!-Whoa!" He reaches out too far and falls to the floor.

Now stuck on the floor, he flails his legs and arms like an upside down turtle, his limbs unable to move him. Jeanette grabs the drink out of the passenger's hand as ordered.

Red lines appeared under Jeanette's feet and immediately two SwatBots brush pass Jeanette, almost shoving her over to where the man fell.

The SwatBots redirects the flow of stopped traffic around the man.

The man looks up at the SwatBots helping the other oblivious humans but him. He tries to get the SwatBots attention.

"Uh, SwatBots, hello? A little help? Please?"

One SwatBot turns to the man on the floor, regarding him with an empathetic electronic voice.

"Please remain stationary, sir, service will be here to assist you shortly," the machine said in a practiced line.

"Uh, anybody? Help?" he tries to ask the crowd, all too busy ordering food, playing games or chatting. Jeanette feels a ping of guilt for the man, she could've taken the cup and he never would have forced himself to fall over. The two SwatBots, as broad and strapping as they were, aren't doing anything much other than making sure these people get to their destinations on time. He must feel embarrassed for causing the delays of the passengers, and no one else is even offering to listen to the poor helpless man on the floor, inconsiderately passing him by. To correct her actions, Jeanette takes the matter into her own hands.

Jeanette stuffs the jumbo size cup into her utility bag out of curiosity before she picks up the man by the back.

"Whoa! Wha-What's going on?" The man looks shocked.

Jeanette grunts as she strains against the man's weight. Lifted heavy cubes before and developing a practiced lift, but not of this man's mass, likely four hundred pounds. Jeanette manages to lift him high enough to drop him back onto his hover chair, the man groans as he lands on his belly.

"Are you alright, sir?" Jeanette asks the fat man.

The fat man looks surprised as he sees Jeanette before him.

"Uuuuh…yeah…thanks," was the reply. He had short blond hair, freckles, brown eyes and he clearly doesn't know how to respond to the dirty, thin chipette before him, like she's the strangest being he's ever seen.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Jeanette," she introduces herself, trying to shake her hand with him. It's pretty awkward with her mechanical hand against a bulbous palm of a hand.

"Uh, I'm Jon."

He seemed confused as if unable to get his bearings, must've been in a virtual stasis for a long time, isolated from the outside world like Simon.

**Simon!** It hits her like a ton of bricks. The awesome structure of the ship made Jeanette almost forget her search for him!

"Simmons?" Jeanette blurts out, frantically scanning all directions for him.

"Uh, no, it's Jon," the man corrected, believing she misunderstood.'

Jeanette spots an open maglev monorail in the center of the deck lobby. Not that it is the only noticeable structure other than the thousands of identically dressed people, but the familiar pod attached to a tram boarding the monorail with Naugus and his SwatBot escorts.

"Simmons!"

Jeanette sprints after the monorail, already forgetting Jon, leaving him even more confused.

"Uh…bye, Jeanette," Jon shyly waves farewell.

_That was interesting,_ Jon wonders if he will see that strange chipette again.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The monorail about to depart, Jeanette guns it with whatever strength she has into her legs to make it!

Jeanette successfully leaps on just as the last car pulls out, but ending up hitting her shin.

Jeanette now has more pain to wince at but she caught up with Simon. The monorail picks up speed as it cruises down the central parts of the city-ship.

As the tram made its way down, Jeanette takes another minute to be confound in wonderment at the scenery, a total blast in comparison to what she grew up with her whole life. She sees a day care center full of fat infants being taught Buy N' Large predesigned education and fed treats by an elderly gray squirrel in a nightgown, a green hat decorated with a drooping white gardenia rested on her head.

"'A' is for 'Axiom,' your home sweet home. 'B' is for 'Buy N' Large,' your very best friend," the squirrel spoke in a New York accent.

They pass a Buy N' Large food court, all of the people seemed to be preoccupied mostly by eating or drinking nonstop out of 'lunch-in-a-cup' as the ship's computer voice called it. She also notices everyone had those large sized lunch-in-a-cup at hand, most preoccupied with eating, guess that explains the obesity.

The tram passes a 'Feel Beautiful' beauty salon. Jeanette sees many female passengers entering to get their hair done, new makeup, their skin tuned and so on by anthropomorphic beauticians.

"It's the new you! You look stunning!" a tall dark blonde furred mixed breed female dog with blonde colored straight dog ears matching her tail and bright blue eyes monotonously replied to an oblivious portly brown haired woman, as if doing this for years. The brunette and other customers probably weren't paying attention to them, reminding Jeanette of the female characters in Hello Dollywho worked and focused a lot on their physical appearance in order to look attractive or stylish. Only difference here is they are just as glued to their holographic-screens as much as everyone else is. How paradox, they worry about prettier looks when they don't actually look at each other. Jeanette never understood any of it.

She doesn't understand anything here, not imagining this way of life.

Everything so bright and clean, the sterilized air far from the toxic but accustomed stench of garbage and rot she grew up, tingling tingle her tainted lungs to breathe in and out of this pollutant free environment. The whole ship full of humans and anthropomorphic beings felt alive, the sounds of music and cheerful voices she's never heard before, nothing like the cries and screams of workers dying or begging for mercy. No, here it boomed with peaceful life but alluring with pointless luxuries. So much so, the happy noises were deafening to her, her ears sensitive after spending decades in perpetual silence.

Nothing like Earth, this is actual civilization.

Jeanette's attention draws to the many jumpsuit fashion holographic-advertisements. The ship's voice comes on.

"_ATTENTION __AXIOM SHOPPERS, TRY BLUE, IT'S THE NEW RED._"

"Oooo…" the passengers next to her actually noticed something out of their holographic screens. They pushed a command on their chair's keypad and all of their red colored jumpsuits turned blue. They go back to chatting, as if nothing happened.

"Whoa," Jeanette states in fascination, seeing how much technology changed these people, having to lift a finger to get what they want.

Turning her sight to the front end of the monorail, she saw Simon's tram. She makes her way over to him but another obese human blocked her way, a red haired woman busy chatting on her holographic screen. Jeanette tries to squeeze through to the other side, if she could just…

The woman's chair backs up, pinning her to the wall.

"Ah!" Jeanette flails her arms as she tries to slip out.

Her head sore and not enough room to go around the woman. She'll have to get her to move. The woman is too busy to care to notice who's around her.

"Date?" she scoffs.

"Don't get me started on the date. Every holographic-date I have been on has been a _virtual_ disaster!"

"Excuse me ma'am?" Jeanette tries to get her attention, she's still oblivious.

"…If I could just meet one, one who wasn't so…superficial."

"Ma'am?" Jeanette taps on her headset, she still doesn't acknowledge her.

"I mean, there are no good men out there!"

"Ma'am?" Jeanette says loudly, tapped harder. She tries to pull off her headset.

"I know! I know because I scrolled through them all-" her headset shortens out as Jeanette accidentally breaks it off.

"What the—?" she gasps, her holographic screen flickers off and her jumpsuit color defaults to red. Jeanette backs away, as if she did something terribly wrong enough to feel her wrath.

She doesn't yell at Jeanette because she _still_ doesn't notice her yet. She takes in the light, trying to focus on the far away structures of the **MAIN DECK** with her contracted eyes. When her vision clears, she is instantly hypnotized by looking at the passing cityscape of the _Axiom_, if seeing the outside world for the first time.

"Uuuh…Excuse me? Ma'am?" Jeanette whistles to get her attention.

"Huh?" Her eyes meet Jeanette's, just as confused as Jon, unsure of what to say at this weird chipette.

"Uuh…Can I move to the other side? Please?" Jeanette asks politely, pointing toward Simon.

The woman looks at her for a second, still fazed by how dirty she looked until she follows her finger to the other side of her chair, to the vacant spot next to a cylinder mounted on the tram. She slowly realized she was asking her to move forward a little.

"Oh! Oh, um, sure, go ahead!" The woman commands her seat to hover forward as Jeanette gets through.

"Thank you, miss…?"

"Mary," the woman introduces herself.

"Jeanette," she gestures to herself as she waves goodbye to Mary, making the last few steps to Simon's pod.

Jeanette sighs in relief now she is back with Simon after losing him and roaming the massive ship.

She climbs onto the back of the tram. Naugus shouldn't be able to see her as long as Jeanette doesn't have to run after them again. She clings onto the pod protectively, not wanting to go through so many distractions and misadventures again.


	15. BRIDGE part 1

Yes, it is true that the legendary episode "Sploosh," along with "Legend of Sleeping Brittany," "Dr. Simon and Mr. Heartthrob," "Back to Our Future," "Quarterback in Curlers" and all of the other episodes that the person with the username **ChipmunkAdventure1** under **_youtube_** had all been deleted due to copyright claim courtesy of _**Bagdasarian Productions**_ . . . It seems that they're taking ANY Chipmunks episodes that are uploaded on _**youtube**_ . . . =(

**StrawberryTigress**: Not anymore . . .

**Devastator1775**: Yes, this has seven hundred, forty eight more hits than SIM·N! :D

**WALL-E and EVE In Love: **Please refer back to my previous response . . .

**drkseeker233:** No problem! Sure hoped that helped!

**annabellecandy:** Welcome to fanfiction! And thank you for enjoying this! Please check out my other stories and review if you wish.

**DISCLAIMER**

_**Bagdasarian Productions**_ owns and holds the rights to both _The Chipmunks_ and_ The Chipettes_.

**_Bagdasarian Film_ Corporations** owned and held the right to The Alvin Show.

_Alvin _is the rollercoaster troublemaker of the family in The Alvin Show.

_Simon_ is the intellectual member of the family in The Alvin Show.

_Theodore_ is the gluttonous member of the family in The Alvin Show.

_Ixix Naugus_ is a fictional famed sorcerer appearing in the Sonic the Hedgehog series or SatAM by fans as well as a recurring character in Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by **_Archie Comics_**.

_Kermit the Frog_ is a muppet created by _**James Maury "Jim" Henson**_.

* * *

><p>The monorail passes through another tunnel under a holographic-sign: <span>MAIN DECK<span>–TO–LIDO DECK.

The deck a massive artificial paradise with hundreds of floors of beach house styled living quarters in a ring surrounding a vast circular swimming pool with adjacent spas and holographic palm trees all around it. There are hundreds of other passengers here, none in the water. All of them sat by the poolside, under umbrellas with their food-drink cups, still hypnotized to their holographic-screen chairs. Three black buttoned nosed, light peach fur male chipmunks in turtleneck sweaters reaching down to their ankles adjusted an umbrella for one of the hypnotized humans. The shortest chipmunk, four feet five inches, in the red sweater matching his cap had his back toward Jeanette. Hovering over both chipmunks, the one in steel blue sweater stood four inches taller than the one in red wore a black pair of round framed glasses shielding his black, beady eyes. Completing the semicircle was a chubby chipmunk two inches shorter than the bespectacled chipmunk in jaded green.

_Figures,_ Jeanette wondered if everyone must be that lazy or brain dead.

The monorail comes to a stop in the front of the LIDO DECK where there's a large Buy n' Large logo on the floor, and an entrance to the BRIDGE LOBBY. Jeanette looks up from the entrance to see a towering spire. At the top was a windowed observation deck built into the ceiling.

Simon's tram got off towards the entrance with Jeanette staying out of Chief Ixis's sight, wondering what's going to be up there.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, Mary and the other passengers leave the monorail. The other passengers go about their business on their path lines with Mary taking in her surroundings. She moves about freely, fascinated at everything she sees of the massive ship.

She gasps as she oversees the LIDO DECK.

"I didn't know we had a pool!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon's tram enters a vast hall, in the base of the control center spire. It's mostly empty, except for a single receptionist desk in front of the elevator to the BRIDGE guarded by an impenetrable blue force field with holographic letters scrolled over it reading BRIDGE ACCESS- AUTHORIZED PERSONNELS ONLY.

The tram stops in front of the desk. Remaining hidden, Jeanette risks a look over the pod to see why they have stopped.

At the desk sat a green frog with bulging eyes in a white Buy n' Large Navy uniform typing on a translucent keyboard onto his holographic screen, his fingers moving at impossible speed, filling out entire reports in just seconds.

The male amphibian seemed lost in his virtual screen before him, eyes seemed bogged down and sleep deprived if doing this task for a long time as Chief Ixis coughs to get his attention.

"Excuse me." Ixis gets a little impatient.

He unglues his sight from his screen, finally stopped typing when he realizes who was addressing her.

"Oh! My apologies Master Chief Ixis, sir! What can I do for you, sir?" he salutes him. Ixis gets straight to it.

"I need to get to the BRIDGE, it's urgent."

The typist looks at the pod questioningly.

"May I ask why, sir?" he asks kindly while still at attention.

"That's classified. I'm under orders from Commander Cass to report to him immediately."

"I understand, sir, but I am required to ask for authoriza-"

"I said I was ordered to report to the BRIDGE by the first officer immediately, and that means now!" Ixis orders him to let him pass, the typist doing his job but this is far more important.

"Yes sir," the typist punches in a command and the security field guarding the elevator deactivates. Ixis drives the tram right past him and into the elevator.

Just about to return to his original duty, the typist notices someone clinging to the back of the tram.

"Huh?" he looks at the spectacled dirty chipette puzzled, never seeing anybody like her before.

"Hello," Jeanette says quietly, giving him a friendly wave. He didn't seem like much of someone to be afraid of besides Ixis.

The typist is baffled, unsure of how to respond to this unfamiliar chipette. Before he could, the elevator doors close as it rises toward the BRIDGE.

"Interesting," he says to himself.

_Out of the ordinary indeed,_ _but far better than being ordered at by the chief_, he thought.

* * *

><p>Guess which looney scientist and his assistant are making their appearance in the next chapter?<p> 


	16. Cap'n on deck

Hello everybody! I hope y'all had a grand Thanksgiving!

NOTE:  
>I went back and did some changes through the chapters.<br>Another thing is I added the _60's Chipmunks_, the ones from The Alvin Show, in the previous chapter.  
>Speaking of <span>The Alvin Show<span>, I introduce two characters that had their own segments: _Clyde Crashcup_ and _Leonardo_.  
>Oh! Guess which seven chipmunks are making their appearances soon? Anyone wanna guess when they'll appear?<p>

**Legion262:** Yeah, I'm trying to put in as many characters from other media into both here and SIM·N.

**Miss Hal Gibson:** Thanks!

**shektor:** Ditto! =D

**MissSteph22:** Yes, I can't wait for the movie to come out! =D

**WALL-E and EVE In Love:** Oh go smurf somebody else for a change.

Until next time, I wish everyone good luck on their finals as well as wonder holidays!

**DISCLAIMER**

_The Chipettes _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** and **_Janice Karman_**.

_The Chipmunks _rightfully belongs to **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._** and **_Ross Bagdasarian Jr._** as well as **_Janice Karman_**.

_Katz_ is a character of the dark horror-comedy with science fantasy and surrealist elements Courage the Cowardly Dog, an American animated television series created by **_John R. Dilworth_** for **_Cartoon Network_**.

_Ixix Naugus_ is a fictional famed sorcerer appearing in the Sonic the Hedgehog series or called SatAM by fans as well as a recurring character in Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by **_Archie Comics_**.

**_Shepard Menken_**voiced _Clyde Crashcup_ in the early 1960's animated television series The Alvin Show written, directed and casted by **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr. _**four years after the chipmunks' highly successful first song, The Chipmunk Song. _Clyde Crashcup _and his assistant made appearances in five issues of a comic book in 1963 and 1964 by **_Dell Comics_** as well as being subjected to a **_Wonder Book_** written and drawn by **_Bob Kurtz_**. _Clyde Crashcup _has made a sole appearance in a dream sequence in the animated Christmas television special, A Chipmunk Christmas as well as in the eighth season episode number one of Alvin and the Chipmunks entitled "Back to Our Future" produced by **_Bagdasarian Production_** in association with**_ DIC Entertainment_**,**_ Nelvana Limited_**,**_ CINAR_** and**_ HIT Entertainment Plc_**.

_Leonardo_ is the mute assistant appearing in the Clyde Crashcup Invents . . . segments in The Alvin Show that **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr. _**written, directed and casted four years after the chipmunks' highly successful first song, The Chipmunk Song. _Leonardo_ made appearances in five issues of a comic book in 1963 and 1964 by **_Dell Comics_** as well as being subjected to a **_Wonder Book_** written and drawn by **_Bob Kurtz_** alongside his bumbling boss.

* * *

><p>Fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters . . . the transparent elevator raised higher and higher, Jeanette on the side facing the <span>LIDO DECK<span>. The view is great, the higher they go, the more the inside of the ship they could see, from the base of the LOBBY to the rear of the MAIN DECK. Jeanette forgotten to tense up whenever it came to heights now, unlike working on top of the trash towers on Earth, the elevator had hardened glass to prevent her from falling and the spectacular sight of the deck lured her away from her acrophobia.

Suddenly the view goes dark. They reached the top of the tower. The elevator doors open and the tram slowly hover into the BRIDGE.

The large, air conditioned circular room dimly lit, the elevator rose from the center of it. One side of the BRIDGE was a wide glass window facing out into space and the other side also a vast viewport overlooking the bright interior of the _Axiom_, overlooking the entire inside of the ship. Jeanette looks around. The surfaces of everything polished, hundreds of multicolored control consoles surrounded the walls in a large circle. Dials, gauges, charts, readouts, screens, buttons, switches, lights, beeps, and sound all very dim and very quiet, a soothing atmosphere.

Something catches Jeanette's eye, or rather, someone.

A sole figure operated the helm, facing away from them out into the blackness of space, steering the ship.

The tram stops, Chief Naugus standing at attention.

"Master Chief Naugus reporting, sir!" he salutes the man who slowly turns around to face them.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

First Officer Katz of the _Axiom _stood five feet, eleven inches tall, looked to be in his mid thirties and had a strong, lean built body. He wore a flawlessly pressed white Buy n' Large naval officer's uniform over his dark red fur body with a black tie and gloss black shining uniform dress shoes. He was spotlessly clean, not a single speck of dust or lint on him. His broad shoulders bore the gold star and bar ranking insignia of commander. He wore an embellished Buy n' Large naval cap to go with his uniform. The inexpressive golden eyes reminded Jeanette of Simon's combat stare whenever she tried to shoot him but this is Katz's natural look: empathetic. A scar ran over his right eye, a faint red dot seen within its pupil. It's a prosthetic eye, a realistic looking prosthetic eye.

Unlike Jeanette who is feral, messy, physically clumsy, yet adorably lovable, Katz is strappingly handsome looking, professional and discipline-minded but intimidating. They are polar opposites of each other.

Strolling over to the tram with his perfectly straight posture, Katz walks with a military officer's metallic pace stick, and it had tiny buttons along the grip.

"I've brought the scout as you requested, commander." Naugus still stood attentively as Katz focuses on Simon's pod.

"I see," his voice deeply monotonous and unemotional much like his eyes. The sound of his voice unnerved Jeanette. She sneaks away from the tram as Katz approaches.

"Are you positive this reconnaissance cryogenic pod registers a legitimate finding of a specimen?" he asked.

"Affirmative, I initially believed it to be a malfunction, but their systems never had problems, so I assumed it to be an actual find," Naugus replies.

"You cannot assume these cryogenic pod's subroutines are not prone to defect master chief; therefore that's the reason I ordered you to bring it here for further verification."

"Understood, sir," Naugus nervously replies as Katz retrieves his own security chip from his pocket, and inserts it into Simon's pod.

A few seconds passed as his advanced analysis chip scans and double-triple check the pod's systems. It pings positive. Katz's eyes remained unemotional even as they widen in realization, the rest of him freezes.

"It's confirmed, the finding is authentic. Scout One has indeed retrieved a live photosynthetic organism," he said flatly.

"If that's true, then…that means…" Naugus trailed off, voice down to a whisper.

"Affirmative," Katz cuts him off, his voice too quiet.

"It means we must initiate Directive Alpha 1-1-3."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette watched the exchange between the two from the far end of the room.

"…then you know what we must do…" Is all she could clearly make out from their hushed voices until Katz returns his to normal tone.

"I will notify the captain."

Jeanette panics when the tall anthropomorphic being heads in her direction.

Her mind went blank for a second not knowing what to do, until she backs into a small circular enclosing space. The doors close all a sudden, and she feels a descending feeling. She realizes she is in another elevator. She's astonished and relieved she inadvertently didn't get caught eavesdropping in a place she doesn't belong.

The doors open up again to reveal a darkened room. Jeanette quietly makes her way out and into the room, trying to get her bearings. She hears a snoring sound coming from somewhere in the darkness. Someone must be sleeping in here. Jeanette's mind races again when she tries to find another way out before-

Katz's voice comes over the room's P.A. system.

"Captain, this is the commander, I apologize for disturbing you sir, but a situation of utmost priority has arisen and you are needed on the BRIDGE as soon as possible, Sir. Katz out."

Jeanette freezes in her tracks.

The room's dimmed lights slowly turned on. One viewport looked out into space and another one to the deck, but that window has polarized, darkened for a sleeping environment.

The room is nautical themed with models of starships, pictures and paintings of ancient sea-going ships and spacecrafts, Buy n' Large Navy flags and celestial charts. Whoever lives here must have been an important crewmember.

Jeanette sees a row of holographic portraits on the wall. Each person in the pictures wore the same Buy n' Large naval officer's uniform, with the rank of captain. Each had a plaque with their names and years of service. Starting from the first captain Jeanette had seen in the _Axiom_ holographic-ad, "Captain Reardon 2105–2248." Jeanette scrolls over each newer captain, who were fatter than the last, showing the devolution of humanity.

An alarm buzz sounds and the window depolarizes, flooding the room with light. Jeanette turns to see a fat man right in front of him, snoring on his bed.

This blob of a human, who looked to be in his late forties, had dark short crew cut hair, thick eyebrows, and is so fat his chin and neck disappear into his torso. Unlike the rest of the passengers, he wore a white Buy n' Large jumpsuit. He too had a hover chair to move around in, this one had no holographic-screen though, and it could fold into a bed.

_Wait a sec,_ Jeanette looks at the sixth and final portrait: "Captain B. McCrea 2775 – present." It's the exact same face.

_This man is the captain?_ Jeanette looks at him in bafflement.

The man stirs, sleeps disturbed by the alarm reading 12:25 PM, must have slept in.

The captain subconsciously reaches out to shut the alarm, mumbling in his sleep.

Only a foot away from the awakening captain, Jeanette tries to back away.

Too late, the captain accidental slaps the side of Jeanette where her cassette player is strapped, activating it.

"_…Put On Your Sunday Clothes, There's Lots Of World Out There!..."_ The player plays its tunes at max volume.

"AH! ALL HANDS ON DECK!" the captain shoots straight up in his sleep, falling back down.

_Crap, Crap, Crap! I gotta turn it off! Turn it off!_ Jeanette panics, she turns off her player but the captain must know she's here.

His chair rises into a sitting position.

_Crap,_ Thinking she was discovered, Jeanette shrinks down preparing for the worst.

Suddenly, two robotic arms, a beautician unit and a messaging unit, appear out of the cabinets behind the hover chair. They both begin brushing his teeth, trimming his hair, patting down his back, even dressing him.

The captain, still dozed, struggles to open his sleepy hazel eyes but is probably aware of being prepped. Jeanette looks at the captain's toes and messages the tiny blobby appendages hopes of not alerting the captain of his presence. The captain giggles to the tickling of his toes. He is now fully prepped and dressed. He has the same captain's uniform and embellished cap like the others but the uniform is so tiny on him it's only draped over his shoulders, with only one button at the middle to fit his overly large neck_. _

A lighted path appears on the floor as his chair hovers toward the elevator Jeanette entered. Jeanette dashes behind the captain's chair when he yawns, taking the chance not to be discovered.

The doors close and open again as they reappear on the BRIDGE.

The captain, still slowly waking up, claps his hand twice. The whole BRIDGE responds with a coffee maker appearing out of a console pouring a fresh cup, Johan Strauss II classical music softly playing over the sound system, and his chair's command paths highlight the floor.

"Captain on deck!" Commander Katz and Chief Naugus stood at attention and salute, the captain is too sleepy to respond as he hovers his way to the nearest source of caffeine.

Katz attempts to brief the captain.

"Sir-"

"Coffee," he cuts Katz off.

He waits patiently behind the captain as he takes his time to grab his cup, he makes no effort and just has his chair push him up to get it, even the highest of commanding humans have become lazy.

"Sir, the annual-" Katz is cut off again by the captain giving him the hand.

He's too busy savoring the taste of his coffee he needs this stimulant to do a boring routine, because he's been doing this job for a long, long time.

"Protocol, Katz, first thing first."

Boredom alone is all it takes him to fall asleep it had to be done.

"Understood, sir." Katz showed no signs of being in a hurry, but then again, he never shows anything.

"Computer! Status report!" the captain says aloud to the room. In an instant, his hover chair whooshes over to a row of consoles, specifically those concerning the conditions of the _Axiom_.

His chair slowly and automatically scrolls along the holographic monitoring panels, bringing the ship's artificial intelligence up online to relay him any new information.

"Mechanical systems?"

"_UNCHANGED – NO MALFUNCTIONS SQUAWKED."_

"Reactor core temperature?"

"_UNCHANGED – FUSION DRIVE WITHIN POWER LIMITS."_

"Passenger count?"

"_UNCHANGED – 1,550,000 SOULS ABOARD, NO BIRTHS OR DEATHS REPORTED."_

"Regenerative food supply?"

"_UNCHANGED – ARTIFICIAL ORGANIC CROPS AT CAPACITY_

"Jacuzzi potential of hydrogen balance?"

"_UNCHANGED – ALL SPAS INDICATE NEUTRAL POTENTIAL OF HYDROGEN AT 7.0."_

Jeanette stayed hidden in the elevator, since everyone will be busy on the consoles to discover Jeanette at the least. She eyes Simon's pod at the other end, Naugus turns away and Katz follows the captain. Jeanette tries to formulate a way to get to him.

"Atmospheric conditions?"

"_UNCHANGED – SEVENTY SEVEN PERCENT NITROGEN, TWENTY THREE PERCENT OXYGEN, FULLY PRESSURIZED."_

"And laundry service volume?"

"_UNCHANGED – NANOFABRIC JUMPSUIT STERILIZATION FLOWING NORMALLY."_

The captain's chair stops at the end of the system's panel, all of them working perfectly. Of course, on this ship nothing changes. Hardly anything ever breaks or is need of repair or replacement. Everything is state-of-the-art, remotely kept in top-notch condition for prolong journeys in space. That bogged down the captain a lot, everyday would be like this and there's nothing to do but live in excessive luxury, then again, there isn't anything else.

Katz brings up another screen, displaying the _Axiom _Reconnaissance Vehicle scout's data, one of them, Simon's, is glowing green, positive. He stands at attention awaiting the captain to finish.

"Okay, Katz, all systems check out green. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes sir, the annual terrestrial vegetation reconnaissance has–"

The captain failed to notice Katz's statement, drawn to one screen displaying the time.

"12:30?" He's wide awake now, realizing its past due publicly addressing the ship.

"Katz, why didn't you wake me for morning announcements?"

"Forgive me, Sir, but you insisted to sle-"

Before Katz can respond further, the captain has already shot across the **BRIDGE** to the other side, facing the ship's interior. He taps a large dial indicating time of day, changing it from 12:30 PM to 9:30 AM. Out on the MAIN DECK, the entire ship responds with the artificial sun moving at high speed from midday to sunrise, food kiosks changing stocks from lunch to breakfast, all hover chair traffic and entertainment activities coming to a halt.

"Honestly, it's the one thing I get to do on this ship."

The captain sounds the announcement blow whistle that resonates throughout the ship, and a live fiber optic video feed broadcasts him on everyone's holographic-screens, even the holographic-ads and the ceiling turn into a broadcasted video feed. He begins his routine announcement.

"Well, good morning everybody, this is your good ol' Captain McCrea speaking, and would like to welcome you to day 255,642 aboard the Buy n' Large's _Axiom_. As always, the weather is a balmy seventy two degrees and sunny, and uh-"

He notices the recorded date on the ship's Earth-time based chronometer reading "1231:16 hours, JUNE 27th, 2805." Exactly seven hundred years, zero months, zero days, zero hours, thirty one minutes and sixteen seconds since the ship launched.

"Oh, hey, I see that the ship's log is showing that today is June 27th, 2805, our seven hundredth anniversary of our five year cruise! Well, I'm sure our forefathers will be proud to know that seven centuries later we'd be…"

_Just another pointless day,_ he wonders to himself. Even everyone on board thought the same thing.

"…doing the exact same thing…they were doing…"

Nevertheless, it's worth mentioning. He snaps back into a welcoming mood.

"So! Be sure next mealtime to ask for your free…"

He can't even say the word correctly. The screen brings up the pronunciation feature, but it's still tricky for him to get it right even as he tried it.

"…Sep-tu-a-cen-ten-ial cupcake, in a cup! Wow, look at that! Also, today we have a-"

Drawn away from his broadcast, the captain observes an unknown button flashes on his console. It's green, looks like it hasn't been pressed ever, and has the same plant icon as Simon's beacon.

The captain switches off the broadcast. The passengers look a bit confused but go about their business.

_This is interesting,_ he doesn't recall being any function like this on the control panel.

"Um, Katz, what's that flashing button?"

Katz saluted the captain, waiting patiently as always.

"Sir! It was just the matter I was about to address sir, for it concerns with the protocol of the annual Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance. That device, there, activates the systematic procedures upon the event one of our scouts discovers and returns with a live specimen of biological life forms."

Katz notions Simon's pod, he deactivates the energy binders holding it in place with the tram and pulls out his data-pad with Simon's recon findings. The captain is dumbfounded that he didn't know it was on the BRIDGE.

"What's _that_ doing here?" the captain points at it.

"It is Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation Scout One's explanatory cryogenic pod, Sir. Scout One was sent to Earth, assigned to an overlooked region for the centennial evaluation. Our long-range sensors detected its subspace beacon and the Return Vehicle has brought her back. And most importantly, you're not going to believe this sir, but…Scout One has returned with a positive finding of photosynthetic life."

The captain's senses are now wide-awake at the sound of those words.

"Positive?" He never thought any life was found on Earth, or any compatible planet. It somehow told him it was to be true, but he couldn't help but deny it.

"Impossible…" the captain whispers in doubt.

"Yes sir, we initially believed this report to be an error, we've already cross-referenced the pod's network for any subroutine defects. Nevertheless, our diagnostics have found no evidence of system flaws whatsoever. The scout has indeed found a live biological organism."

"Are you sure?" the captain asks.

Katz types in the code to the pod's holographic keypad.

"Well, sir, let's ask her ourselves."

Katz punches in the last digit, the pod hisses open.

Inside, Simon slowly reanimates and regains consciousness.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette's heart skipped a beat. Two beats. Her eyes widen with pure joy for the first time ever since she laid eyes on him.

"Simmons!..."

She no longer cares about being spotted in the elevator anymore. After days of seeing him lifelessly frozen, she almost forgot what it was like to see him alive and handsome for real. She is too compelled to look at him, so she quietly makes her way behind the central elevator to get closer to them. At least she can clearly hear what they're saying.

Simon stirred and rises from stasis in just a few seconds. His eyesight returned quickly and so did his disciplinary instincts when he recognizes his superior officers around her.

"Second Lieutenant Simon of Vegetation Recon reporting, sir!"

He instantly stood from still unfreezing to attention, saluting the captain and commander. He coughed out cryogenic residue from his lungs so he could breathe normally again.

"At ease, lieutenant. How do you feel?" the captain asks.

"I'm feeling alright, sir," Simon coughed while regaining his composure as he looks around.

"Where am I?"

"Back on board the _Axiom_, the _Axiom _Reconnaissance Vehicle retrieved you after we intercepted your pod's distress signal, activated via your neural implants upon the discovery of any life you may have found. And as unlikely as statistics allow, it appears you have found positive plant life on Terra-three of Sol," Katz said.

Simon tries to think and relay all the information.

_Terra-3, Sol, third terrestrial planet of the Sol System, also known as Earth._

Her memories come back to her in fragments, a side effect of the unfreezing process.

"Yes…yes, my assigned directive Alpha One dash Zero One was to Earth, specifically Sector NA-001. North America – City 001, formerly known as New York."

"The capital city of the Buy N' Large government?" the captain asks.

Simon joggles through her mind to deliver her official report with the captain intently listening.

"Affirmative, I was assigned this area because it was often disregarded to find any life near where our civilization last looked back to see anything besides the trash-barren lands. I even inspected the _Axiom's _launch site. All of it is as structurally intact as it was when the last of humanity left Earth in 2105. Anyway, I believe it was within a week of my search, I encountered a seedling plant somewhere in the 'Hudson Bay.' I inspected it and biodegradable analysis clearly checks it out as a plant that processes photosynthesis of carbohydrate and oxygen for breathable air."

The captain presses on for answers behind the location he explored.

"But why search the very center of the planet's most heavily polluted area? After all, the capital is where the trash crisis all started."

"Well we have not surveyed the area over the last several decades, sir and conditions do change in that kind of time period. Of all the other sectors my fellow scouts believed likely to find anything compatible, from Brazil to Siberia or Canada. I thought it was most likely to find things in places overlooked, mostly trashed cities or former population centers other than open spaces of deserts or tundra."

The captain takes in the info, realization sinking in.

"So your official conclusion means the complete survey is a success, and the planet can support complex life?"

"The planet's environmental condition is still poor overall, but it's technically habitable."

The last word 'habitable' hung in the captain's head.

"And you are absolutely sure of this?" the captain asks for a final answer.

"Yes, sir, that is my official report. I even have the specimen in my container with me, its solid proof that as of now, planet Earth is once again a life bearable world."

A few seconds pass before Katz responds.

"I concur with the lieutenant's statement, captain."

"As do I, sir," Naugus replies as well.

_Yes!_ Simon triumphantly thought.

_At last something worthy and important finally!_ His second directive A1-02 was accomplished, only one more to fulfill!

The captain remains silent, half-shocked/half-unsure. He looks back down on the flashing green button.

"But…no scout's ever come back positive…before…"

"Well, I have now, sir," Simon proudly replies.

Katz steps forward.

"Sir, I can reassure you, you no doubtingly know what this means and what needs to be done at this point…" He eyes the same button as the captain.

"…but the decision to proceed is up to you."

The captain realizes the significance of this event. One the previous captain, one thing he believed he would never live to witness, briefly told of him: the time civilization, after seven hundred years of safe sailing in outer space, will end the day they set foot on the planet. Though he hated routine and boredom, it felt safe. Leaving to an unclean planet without the sterile luxuries felt too dangerous.

He scans his thumbprint for the green button's biometric scan, and pushes the button.

An alarm sounds in the BRIDGE, the captain almost falls out of his chair and Jeanette almost yelps loud enough to give away his position. Then, blast doors and metallic shades close all the windows, darkening the room.

A holographic-screen appears before the helm, the _Buy N' Large jingle_ flicks on:

**_- ROOM SECURE, COMMENCING TRANSMISSION - _**

The screen changes to a man in a fine business suit standing before a presidential podium. His unmistakable overly optimistic express said it all for who he is.

Shelby Forthright, the late Buy n' Large Chief Executive Officer.

"Greetings and congratulations, captain! If you are watching this message, that means your E.V.R.E. scout, or 'Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance and Evaluation' scout, has returned from planet Earth with a confirmed specimen of ongoing photosynthesis. That's right! It means it's time to go back home!"

"Home? We-we're going back?"

The captain's worst fear just been said aloud by the CEO himself, they are going back to Earth, no more _Axiom_.

Everyone in the room drawn to the prerecorded message except Jeanette who sees a window of opportunity to make his way over to Simon while everyone is distracted.

"Thanks to the hard-worked efforts that our company's workforce made here for 'Operation Cleanup,' our home world has been successfully restored to a life sustaining status. And by golly, that means we can initiate 'Operation Recolonize.'"

Jeanette freezes when a sound comes from the console he hid under, the captain and Katz's attention become alert to the noise and head over his way. Did he trip a wire? Strangely, nothing happens. Jeanette sticks his head out for a peak. The captain and Katz picked up a red book that emerged from a sealed storage console. It looked old, and never opened before. The captain blows away the dusty exterior of the book to reveal an operation manual for the recolonization of Earth.

Jeanette and the captain watch the screen as a simplistic systematic animated illustration appears for placing a plant into rising device that leads the ship to Earth.

"Just simply follow this manual's instructions to place your retrieved specimen, into your ship's holographic-detector, and the _Axiom_ will immediately navigate your return to Earth. It's that easy!"

"Huh," the captain and Jeanette utter simultaneously, it seemed **_very_** easy.

The captain, Katz and Naugus had their backs to Jeanette as they watch the presentation and message. Jeanette looks over to Simon, standing by himrself in the back corner. The Swatbots already left the BRIDGE, now is his chance, he sneaks his way to Simon. The video shows a tall, lanky man in a lab coat and dark slacks, his thick, charcoal hair spurting each way and a thin pencil mustache visible under his long nose.

"Hello fellow scientists and viewers! Perhaps you are wondering why I called you all here? It's quite simple really. Leonardo, if you please . . ." A balding, thin-rimmed spectacled midget appeared on screen, rolling in a chalkboard with chalk drawn figures on it.

"Now due to the effects of microgravity, err that's 'micro' for micro and 'gravity' for gravity, microgravity, you and your passengers may have suffered some 'osteoporosis,' or in medical terms: 'slight bone loss.'" The beady-eyed scientist chuckles at the illustration of the degraded human body in zero gravity.

"But I'm sure a few laps around my latest invention . . ." A saxophone sounded from the video.

". . . the jogging track-" Both Jeanette and Simon raised their eyebrows, incredulous.

"-that's 'jog' for jog and 'ing' for ing, jogging track will get you back in shape in no time..."

The captain stares at his short chubby appendages for legs barely can lift his own foot.

"We have a jogging track?" he asks Katz.

"Yes, sir, but no one used it ever and have been retrofitted for the E.V.R.E. training purposes."

"Oh." The video had gone back to the head chief executive officer.

"…And if you have any further questions, just consult your operation manual. On behalf of Buy N' Large, your world's greatest and only Superstore, this is CEO Shelby Forthwright, signing off. See you back home real soon!"

**_- END TRANSMISSION -_**

The captain and Katz stare at the book. The captain reads the cover.

"Op-er-ate, Man-well," the captain miserably mispronounces the operation manual.

"It's 'Operation Manual,' sir," Katz corrects him. At least he had Katz to help.

Now it was up to them to take the colonization of the ship to Earth into their hands.

"Best get started, I guess." The captain holds out the book and speaks into it aloud.

"Manual, relay instructions!"

Nothing.

"Manual?" The captain scrutinizes the book closely for anything to turn it on.

Katz waits patiently and inexpressively, he couldn't help but think humanity has fallen so far that even superior officers couldn't read properly and can't even know a book when they see one.

"Allow me, captain," Katz interjects the captain's fiddling and simply pulls open the hardcover page. He steps back with his arms behind his back when he's done.

The captain responses fascinated, he's never seen a book before.

"Wow! Would you look at that, paper that can hold and relay information? Genius!"

This recolonization thing is going to take awhile.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Simon stands eagerly at the corner of the BRIDGE, waiting for what his superiors will have in store for him when they need to carry out the task of getting back to Earth.

While waiting, he tries to recollect more of his foggy memories of his trip. It's slowly coming back in pieces, mind frozen along with his body.

He slowly remembers the emotions running through him when he went joy flying around the clouds, destroying a ship in anger, finding the plant, and in the home of… His mind struggles to remember the name of that surviving cleanup worker who followed him around whom he almost killed by blowing her to smithereens and sent him flying into a wall…

Jeanette! That's her name.

Simon remembers meeting that poor chipette stuck on that planet, working and surviving her whole life. She barely survived his jumpiness just to get a glimpse of him. He remembers she gave him shelter from a deadly sandstorm, showed him her prized but sole possessions. There was something odd about her. She seemed to look at him in ways making him wonder what's going on in her mind, about what she sees in him. The last thing he remembers is freezing up after he took the plant from her. It must have been at least three weeks since then, he wonders what she is doing right now…

A tap on him shoulder drew him out of train of thought. He looks over to see a familiar face of a filthy cleanup worker.

"Not now, Jeanette."

He tries to remember what he was think—

_WAIT! JEANETTE!_

His mind blew a fuse and his heart stopped altogether.

"Hello, Simmons," Jeanette waves with a smile, she's too happy to see him again.

Simon however is too slack-jawed in shock and disbelief to answer.

"Simmons?" Jeanette asks again, his eyes looked fully contracted in sudden shock.

Seconds seem like minutes when she waits for his answer.

Finally, his mind speaks its only thought.

"**WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"** Simon half whispered and half yelled at Jeanette.

Before Jeanette could answer, Simon hushed her by shoving her under a darkened console as fast as she can.

"Simmons? What are yo-" Simon grabbed her mouth, muffling hier speech. He frantically checks to see Chief Naugus isn't paying attention to them.

He turns back to Jeanette.

"Jeanette, what are you doing here? How did you get here?" Simon whispered loudly as he could.

Jeanette tires to explain behind his grip over her muffled mouth, but he goes on.

"You can't even be here! Do you have any idea what they will do to me? Or to you, if you get caught? I'm going to get in so much trouble…"

Jeanette, however, listened to his voice but wasn't paying attention to his words. Even if he is surprised and upset, his voice the most beautiful sound to listen. She eyed him dreamily as he ranted about how much trouble they're going to get in. She missed him so dearly during her suspended animation.

"Okay, Simon, let's take a look," the captain called from across the BRIDGE, he and Katz were still reading the book.

_Gasp,_ Simon snapped around instantly at the mention of her name and the very thing he waited for a minute ago. Before he did, he kicked Jeanette far as he could under the console for her to stay hidden.

The captain reads aloud the procedures, finally being able to decipher the simple pages.

"Let's see here, step one – voice command to ship's computer: 'Confirm acquisition.'"

"_CONFIRM ACQUISITION,_"the computer repeats.

Having heard that, the room springs to activity. Green lights illuminate the ceiling at the center of the lights a cylindrical device emerges. Blue lights scan the BRIDGE in a three hundred sixty degree rotation until it locks onto Simon's sample container.

The device maneuvers its way over to Simon on ceiling tracks. Positioning it over her, mechanical arms reach out from the device and snatch the container from the surprised Simon. Then another arm reaches out to an equally baffled captain. It's an audio activation receiver.

"_VOCAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED._"

"Uuh..." is his only confused response.

"_Uuh..._" it repeats his response.

_"PATTERN IDENTIFIED: MCCREA, BENJAMIN H. CAPTAIN, __Buy n' Larges' AXIOM;_ _AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED._"

Another arm lowers from the device, pressing a sequence of codes into the container. The captain winches behind the manual held up to cover his eyes, Jeanette peeks from the console, even Katz and Gopher await a look, everyone on the BRIDGE braces themselves for whatever is inside.

The container's top opens to reveal...

...nothing inside it.

"HUH?" Simon is more shocked to see it empty.

"Huh?" The captain looks even more confused.

"Where's the thingie?"

"Plant, sir," Katz corrects him.

The captain opens the book, unintelligibly searching through it for an answer.

"Plant, right, right. W-Where is it?"

They search through the book, the captain believing they missed a step in a one step procedure.

With their backs turned, Simon looks around for it with his mind racing in confusion. Did it fall out? No, these containers sealed like safes. She thinks again. Someone must have removed it, it was in his pod with him and no one has seen the plant but him. The only person who possibly could've...

He stops for a second, remembering something. His thoughts turn from confusion to anger aimed at the only other person who saw the plant before he came back to the ship...

"Jeanette!"

He turns on her, grabbing her by her collar and yanking her out from under the console.

Jeanette is frightened with Simon turning against her suddenly, and now he's hurting her, looking for something.

"Where is it? Where is it?" he searches her utility bag, oddly finding just a jumbo size lunch-in-a-cup. Then he searches her pockets, pads down her work suit and searches her hiding spot. Nothing turns up.

"What are you looking for? Simmons?" He doesn't pay attention to her. Instead, he riffles through his utility belt, pulling out his holographic-scanner and starts searching everywhere she has been.

"Simmons?" she asks innocently.

"Find the plant!" he practically yells at her, making her flinch.

Jeanette frantically searches for the plant, to try calm him down, just as confused as he was. She saw him take the plant from her and he remained frozen the whole time. So how could it just disappear into thin air?

The captain and Katz turn back around. Simon jumps back to her spot at attention, with Jeanette still looking aimlessly around.

"Lieutenant, did you actually find a plant or are you making this all up?" Katz asks suspiciously.

"No! Not at all, Sir! I-I KNOW I found that plant, it was an** Ailanthus Altissimo**, a Simaroubaceae tree seedling planted in an old boot. I swear on my life I had one in that container!" Simon replied defensively.

"Why don't we scan the inside of the container itself to be sure, it could have fallen out," the captain suggests, Katz pulls out his specialized chip and inserts it into the chamber of the container. Simon waits worriedly.

It pings negative after a couple of seconds.

"Biodegradable analysis shows this pressure sealed container experienced no recent presence of a biological specimen. The only plausible explanation to the lieutenant's claims of her 'missing' plant this is that the lieutenant has not found a plant at all." Simon scoffs at Katz's flat statement.

"So, then...we're NOT going back to Earth?" the captain asks Katz.

"Negative, sir."

"I guess, uh, that means things go back to normal, huh?"

"Correct, captain."

The captain happily closes the manual in his hands, inwardly relieved to stick to the _Axiom._

"Well, false alarm!"

The computer confirms it and the systems return to their usual setting; the arm device retracts into the ceiling and the blast shades retract, flooding the BRIDGE with light, everything has returned to the unharmed, normal.

"How could this have happened?" the captain asks Simon for this stir.

"If I may, in all the considerable possibilities to the issue, I conclude either the lieutenant must have misidentified what he thought was a plant, forgot to place it in the container if he even found one in the first place. Or his neural implants must have malfunctioned and caused him to enact the protocol, or lastly, he could just be falsifying all of this," Katz states his opinion.

Simon is losing whatever patience he has against this accusation.

"Excuse me? I would never lie, let alone misidentify a plant. I have an unmatched academic honesty record, I have graduated top of my class in the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation training program. I have mastered the fields of astrobiology, anthropology, agriculture, excavation, microbiology, physiology, AND I have mastered botany to the point I can name every plant, family, order, genus and species from heart! AND about my health: I have surpassed all the physical health screenings before each and every mission! I have never been sick in my life! Not to mention I created those 20/202 contacts to improve one's visual acuity!"

"Then therefore, the only logical possibility left is that you may never have found a plant and must have lied to us, lieutenant. You have an unprecedented foundation of knowledge regarding of evaluating biological life, never committed any academic dishonesty, and are the most physically suitable for the directive. On the contrary, it does not mean you are never completely dishonest or vulnerable to making a mistake or becoming ill, you are human after all. There is no other way for us to verify you are telling us the truth, so just the declaration of your finding in itself is self-explanatory. It could range from a delusional side effect of prolonged suspended animation, or it could be job-induced stress. Besides, though these containers cannot possibly open by force, their encoding subroutines still manipulated with to indicate a positive finding. As for your neural implants, one could also access their interfaces to trigger a protocol command to fabricate a source of proof to justify your acquisition."

Katz's monotone words of his computational reasoning cut Simon off from defending himself further on the truth.

"Then...I guess, she made it up out of stress," the captain slowly understands everything Katz said.

"And regulations state that when it comes to dishonesty, a scout's personal health, and the recolonization protocol, a very serious protocol that changes our way of life no less, it is an act of unhealthy dishonorable conduct, which carries consequences." Katz turns to the captain for a penalty.

"Uh, ya that's true I'm afraid, lieutenant. However, since it could be anything from outright lying or just personal health concerns altogether, I recommend that you are to be sent to the WARD for evaluation. Your reconnaissance status and rank shall be revoked until I overrule it otherwise."

Simon's mind dreaded over his sentence: evaluation and demotion. He is to visit the ship's medical center to undergo a series of physical examination plus psychological diagnosis and processing.

"But, sir, I'm-"

"No 'buts' Mr. Seville. You WILL undergo the evaluation, and that's an order," the captain said in finality.

Simon slumps down in defeat, confused and angry knowing he's telling the truth, but he is called a delusional liar instead.

"Naugus, go ahead and escort the lieutenant to the WARD," the captain orders.

"Aye, captain," Naugus salutes as he takes Simon by her arm to walk her over to the transport.

"Have them run diagnostics on everything from implants to interface, make he isn't—AAAAHH!"

Everyone on the BRIDGE jumps in surprise at the captain's surprised yelp.

They look to see him pointing at Jeanette, obliviously searching around for Simon's plant while hiding right behind him.

Jeanette froze like a deer in headlights, she been discovered.

An awkward minute of silence passes, before Jeanette decides to break the ice.

"Hello," she walks innocently up to the still stunned captain and took his still pointed hand with her biological left hand.

"I'm Jeanette," she half-stuttered.

She lets goes of the captain's hand, leaving a considerable amount of dirt and grime on it.

The captain stares at it, unable to respond, he's never seen dirt before. Katz raises an eyebrow at the strange chipette before him. Simon looks away, face red in embarrassment.

Katz turns to the baffled captain.

"Do you want me to call security, sir?"

"Uuuh..." he is still trying to identify the contaminants on his hand, and then he answers.

"Have, uh, 'Jeanette' cleaned."

Katz, just as baffled as the captain, carries out his orders.

"Aye, sir. Chief, escort this chipmunk to the WARD as well, they'll know what to do."

Naugus grabs a confused Jeanette and places her in the tram next to Simon, handcuffing her with a pair of energy binders.

Simon buried his head in her hands, wondering how much worse Jeanette can ruin a bad homecoming.

* * *

><p>"Seville" is a reference to the fictional character's last name.<p> 


	17. BRIDGE part 2

**WALL-E and EVE In Love**: Wonderful to hear from you. I haven't updated in a while since people don't leave reviews and the fact all the times I make guessing games which nobody EVER responds to unlike those who do make questionnaires, they get responses and after a while, I get sick of it. Not to mention hardly anybody voted for options that I leave for readers to choose . . .

**SimonSeville27:** . . . . . what announcements?

**DISCLAIMER**

First founded as **_Bagdasarian Film Corporation_** by the chipmunks creator **_Ross Bagdasarian Sr._**, **_Ross Bagdassarian Jr. _**and**_ Janice Karman_** holds rights to _The Chipmunks_ under **_Bagdasarian Productions_**.

**_James Maury "Jim"_**** Henson **created fictional muppet _Kermit the Frog_.

A character of the American horror-comedy animated television series, _Katz_ is one of the villains in Courage the Cowardly Dog cread by **_John R. Dilworth_**.

* * *

><p>The typist's mind wondered, his warped task of receptionist duties slowed by the strange chipette he saw earlier.<p>

The elevator doors to the BRIDGE LOBBY opened. Chief **Ixis** tram hovers off without giving notice to the typist.

When the receptionist looked to see the tram leave, he sees the very strange chipette, her hands bound with energy binders along with an E.V.R.E. scout who sat next to her. The scout didn't seem pleased at all. The chipette notices the anthropomorphic frog and waves at him who enthusiastically waves back, the only being kind enough to acknowledge her whenever someone needed to go in or out of the BRIDGE. She waves even more as her tram disappears out to the LIDO DECK, making the typist's day a little brighter.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Jeanette waves back at the nice cotton candy haired dodo bird at the receptionist desk, she was kind enough to not raise the alarm, so he waves her a friendly goodbye, which she happily returns.

As they leave the lobby, the chipette turns her attention to Simon, who looked distant and irritated beyond measure. Jeanette didn't understand why for she busied herself searching for the plant, thus not paying any attention to what went on around her. Loathing the tense vibe Simon emitted, Jeanette opened her mouth.

"Simmons?"

"Do not speak to me."

Simon didn't look at her, zoning out her attempts to get his attention with a warning hint. Jeanette pressed on.

"But, Simmons, what's wro-" Simon elbowed her hard in the side, the force of his augmentative strength practically cracked a rib.

"Ow!" she groaned.

"Shut up!" his voice sharp, and threatening, the anger in his expression looked worse than his combat stare.

Jeanette gasped at the stabbing pain and at his response, realizing whatever Simon was upset over, it's something about her, though why Simon decided to take his anger out on her was beyond the chipette.

Jeanteer sat there in disappointment and with a possible broken rib, her mind wondering between how she's going to reconnect with Simon and where the tram was going.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, on the BRIDGE, the captain prepared to go to his quarters for the day, to find out what the strange specks left on his hand by that 'Jeanette' fellow they sent with the lieutenant to the WARD.

He stares at the dirt and grime on his hand, wondering how anything this filthy is presently on board such a sterilized starship.

"Weird."

"Sir?" Katz hears him from the helmsman station.

"Oh, its- just this day has been interesting enough, more than any day in that regard. A false plant alarm, and that strange Jeanette. I've never seen someone like him before."

"Neither have I, sir. I took the liberty to do a manifest search of all possible passenger and crew names. And so far, the name 'Jeanette' does not appear within any of the ship's records."

"That's very odd. How about where he's from and what is he?"

"I most certainly do not know, captain."

"Hm," the captain tries to speculate any possibility of whom and where he along with these specks came from.

"Oh, well, the WARD will let us know further about. I'll be headed down to my room, Katz, you have the con."

"Aye, aye, captain," Katz salutes the captain as his hover chair disappears into the elevator and he returns to the helm.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Down below the BRIDGE, the captain activates his personal supercomputer. A giant four foot by eight-foot holographic screen that appears out from a desk-like console similar to the _control_ panels on the bridge.

"Computer, analyze."

The captain places the dirt specks into a circular sample container levitating in light as the computer's Artificial Intelligence scrutinizes it. A nanosecond passes by as the screen brings up teraflops of scientific information and graphic illustrations of the dirt.

"_ANALYSIS: FOREIGN CONTAMINANT. SUBSTANCE IS A THREE-PHASE SYSTEM OF MINERAL BODIES COMPOSED OF VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF NATURALLY DERIVED SOLIDS..._"

…Even in simple version explanation relay, the computer goes on and on and on. The captain has already zoned out, tired and wanting to stop for the day already. Besides, the **WARD** will bring up information about that 'Jeanette' and this dirt stuff, hopefully it shouldn't be too boring…

"…_SUBSTANCE IS MORE COMMONLY REFERED TO AS: SOIL, DIRT, DUST, OR EARTH._"

The captain's train of thought came to a complete stand still at that word.

"Earth?"

_These specks of dirt came from Jeanette, but that meant he must've been from Earth?_

He doesn't mind the uncleanness of dirt aboard his ship, or about how in the universe Jeanette is on board but rather that _if he_ really is from Earth. It should be impossible for him to be alive but it seemed to be the only logical answer.

He eyes the globe at the corner of his room.

Yes, it has been uninhabitable for centuries and still is, based off the last sketchy report. But Eve did have a point: over long periods of time, a planet or at least a part of it can change.

He never seen what Earth looked like or what true value behind its biological life they keep trying to find, being taught about it in grade school, about humanity's heritage from this planet and the known facts of the trash crisis that lead them to where they are today. He wanted to know more about what the secret behind its importance to being life bearing. Sure they have their ships, cramped as they are, but as for a whole planet, what's so special about it?

Perhaps he could look more into it, he mind find something to quell his questioning mind.

"Computer, new search, define: Earth."

The screen goes blank momentarily. New images of land begun to appear, from various farm lands, to fertile mineral soil, food crops, fresh greenery, beautiful plants, misty rainforests, snow-capped mountains, lush wildlife, warm desert sands, landmasses, geologic elements & resources, the biosphere, and dozens upon dozens of other images fill the screen in just seconds. The captain drinks in everything, his curiosity and interest with humanity's home world inflaming.

"'_EARTH' – THE THIRD PLANET IN THE SOL SYSTEM, THE ONLY KNOWN PLANET IN THE UNIVERSE CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING COMPLEX LIFE. THE TERM IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE SOLID SURFACE OF THE WORLD, AS DISTINCT FROM THE SKY OR SEA._"

A single image appears before the myriad and colorful display of earth-related topics; this image showed the clear blue oceans, white clouds, and green continents of the planet Earth in all its beauty and glory from orbit, this is what it was meant to be like.

"Wow," the captain is fascinated by the majesty of the blue/green oblate orb floating peacefully in space.

So this is where they came from. Compared to the images of seeing countless outdoor views to the void blackness of space, this is too new and inviting to ignore.

He spots one image that caught his attention. A view from a white sandy beach, overlooking something called the 'sea.'

"Computer, define: Sea," he clicks on the image, more information floods his screen about water, but he is more than content to read it all.

"'_SEA' – A LARGE BODY OF WATER, ALSO A SYNONYM FOR THE TERM 'OCEAN', AN EXPANSE OF SALTWATER THAT COVERS SEVNETY ONE PERCENT OF THE PLANET'S SURFACE, AND SURROUNDS ITS LANDMASSES…_"

The captain stayed glued to his screen unlike others aboard the _Axiom_, he did something productive and educational.

* * *

><p>Guess who's appearing next?<p> 


End file.
